A HISTORY 

OF 

THEOSOPHY 



BY W. J. COLVILLE. 



BOSTON, MASS.: 
FREEDOM PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
1896. 



3 




:o: 

COPYRIGHTED. 1896, 

BY 

HELEN WILMANS. 

All rights reserved. 
:o: 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. I. General Outline. 

Chap. II. Ancient and Modern Views of Theosophy Compared 
with the Tenets of Mental Science. 

Chap. III. Flashes of Light from Ancient Religions — The Es- 
sentials of Mysticism. 

Chap. IV. The Mystical View of Death— Conquest Over It— 
The True Spiritual and Bodily Resurrection. 

Chap. V. Theosophy in Egypt. 

Chap. VI. The Theosophy of India. 

Chap. VII. Oriental Modes of Worship Interpreted by The- 
osophy. 

Chap. VIII. The Theosophical Idea of Reincarnation and 
Karma. 

Chap. IX. The Seven-fold Idea of Man. 

Chap. X. Theosophical Literature. 

Chap. XI. Work of Annie Besant for Theosophy. 

Chap. XII. The Coming Theosophy — Its Relation to Mental 
Science. 



Theosophical Suggestions for Mental and Psychical 
Development — Toga Practice. 



Chap. XIII. 

Chap. XIV. General Compendium of Theosophical Teachings. 



f\ ^issoi^r op j^Eosopj^r. 

CHAPTER L 



GENERAL OUTLINE. 

In an attempt to compile a brief, popular outline of 
so vast and far-reaching a movement as Theosophy, it 
becomes the writer to approach the subject with ab- 
solute fearlessness and impartiality; and most of all is 
it necessary for whoever undertakes to write on so 
stupendous and universal a theme, to distinctly re- 
member that no limited definition of the word, as 
applied to the tenets of any special society or school 
of thought, can possibly do justice to the term. 

Theosophists are to be found in all countries and 
among all bodies of religionists, philosophers and 
scientists; for though Theosophy may be aptly styled 
religion itself, or the universal Wisdom Religion, it is 
in no sense one religion out of many. True Theoso- 



6 GENERAL OUTLIKE. 

phists are Gnostics or knowing ones; consequently 
they cannot be of the number of those who do not 
know, but simply entertain variable and doubtful 
opinions and constantly oscillate between blind belief 
and equally unseeing incredulity. From disbelief to 
belief, and again from belief to doubt or even denial, 
is often but a single short, easy step, but from igno- 
rance to knowledge is a lengthy pathway, and one, 
moreover, which none but earnest, loyal minds can 
truly tread. 

In very ancient times — we will not undertake to say 
how long ago — there were men and women on earth 
far wiser than the bulk of educated people we meet to- 
day. That such people did actually live and work 
many thousands of years ago is no matter of conject- 
ure, for their works remain and are to-day the wonder 
and admiration of the world's greatest scholars. To 
arrive at an approximately correct view of the state of 
the world many millenniums since, we have but to 
examine the monuments of remote antiquity still ex- 
tant, read such portions of the oldest scriptures 
accessible to us and compare the edifices and writings 



GENERAL OUTLIKE. 7 

of the wise men of those far off times with the finest 
achievements of the present hour. What would be 
the probable result of such a study if conducted in a 
strictly scientific spirit of unprejudiced research ? We 
should assuredly be confronted with two definite con- 
clusions: First, that Wendell Phillips' lecture upon 
"The Lost Arts," Ignatius Donnelly's "Atlantis," 
Marie Corellfs "Ardath," Albert Ross Parsons, "New 
Light from the Great Pyramid," and a host of other 
modern publications introducing their readers to 
scenes of great attainment in all literary, artistic and 
scientific development among very ancient peoples are 
founded upon actual fact; and, second, we should be 
forced to the conclusion that though such great learn- 
ing actually existed, and such amazing products of 
advanced civilization abounded in days long antedat- 
ing the historic period, commencing with Herodotus, 
the ancient world did not give expression to the 
democratic form of civilization, to which all modern 
republicans look forward as the very acme of human 
development. The American idea of to-day may be 
in some respects a new idea, and, indeed, the present 



8 GENERAL OUTLINE. 

educational measures nearly all over Europe are dis- 
tinctly novel measures, the chief point of difference 
between the theory of enlightenment in days gone by 
and the present theory, being that the old idea was 
essentially aristocratic, while the progressive thought 
of to-day is purely democratic. 

When considering the wisdom of the ancients and 
their marvelous accomplishments in almost every direc- 
tion, we are not attempting to prove that the state of 
the world in times to which we shall frequently refer 
was higher than at present ; but our aim will some- 
times be to do justice to the great teachers of ancient 
days, and while paying tribute to their real greatness 
explain as far as possible what processes of develop- 
ment led them to the eminences they eventually 
attained. The two chief causes to be assigned for 
possession and exercise of wonderful powers commonly 
called supernatural, or at least supernormal, are — first, 
natural genius, or singular endowment from birth; 
second, results of long and often painful submission 
to initiatory processes. 

Remarkable genius from birth is usually referred to 



GENERAL 0UTLI2TE. 9 

heredity or results of development reached in previous 
existences. The Oriental mind has always been 
favorable to the idea of reincarnation, though the 
western intellect has frequently repudiated it and 
dismissed it with scornful contempt; but though the 
Occidental intellect professes oftentimes great distaste 
for the theory of repeated embodiments on earth of the 
same spiritual unit of consciousness, it takes not only 
kindly but enthusiastically to a variety of theories of 
heredity, many of them extremely repulsive to educated 
moral sense — especially the doctrine of original sin, 
which has been the most formidable bugbear in 
Christendom for at least fifteen centuries. The church 
of the first three centuries, which embraced the period 
of the "Fathers," was far more Theosophical or esoteric 
in its teachings than it became after the days of Con- 
stantine and the wide acceptance of many harsh dogmas 
most of which owe their origin to the fourth century, 
but to no earlier period. Augustine, Origen and many 
others of the patristic authors distinctly favored an 
occult or interior view of every doctrine of religion 
and of all or nearly all the books of the Bible. 



10 GENERAL OUTLINE. 

Iii quite recent times the spirit of the early Christian 
Thesosphists was to some extent revived in the 
Society of Friends, among the Quietists and other 
bodies of intuitionalists, who waited in silence and 
repose for inward illumination and refused utterly to 
submit to the dictates of any prelatical hierarchy. 

The three gospels commonly called synoptics are 
not by any means so distinctly Theosophic in their 
tone and tendency as the fourth gospel commonly 
attributed to Saint John. The striking difference 
between the three preceding gospels and the fourth, is 
that they (the synoptics) are in style distinctly gene- 
alogical and biographical, while it (the Johannine) is 
mystical and altogether exempt from temporal elements 
in its commencement, though it apparently introduces 
historical matter a little later on. In the earliest 
Christian church there were divisions of opinion con- 
cerning the sources whence wisdom could be obtained. 
Many supposed that to bow before ecclesiastical tri- 
bunals and synods was the only way to obtain divine 
direction, for their previous training had led them to 
believe it essential to consult outward oracles and sit 



GENERAL OUTLIKE, 11 

as docile students at the feet of learned masters. The 
Theosophic spirit was directly opposed to the conven- 
tional and the sacerdotal, from which it differed as com- 
pletely as the philosophy of Emerson differs from the 
theology of Dr. Pusey, or the views of the venerable 
James Martineau on u The Seat of Authority in 
Religion" differ from those of the most pronounced 
Ultramontanist to whom the infallibility of the Pope 
is the cornerstone of Christianity. 

As we are personally acquainted with the birth, as 
well as with the subsequent history of that much 
talked of Theosophical Society, many of whose mem- 
bers are devoted adherents to the cause of H. P. 
Blavatsky, who is supposed by them to be an extra- 
ordinary messenger appointed by mysterious Mahat- 
mas or Himalayan Brothers, who are the alleged 
founders and head of the modern Theosophical move- 
ment, we shall not hesitate to contrast the many f oun- 
dationless claims put forward on behalf of the authority 
vested in books and teachers, with the true genius of 
genuine Theosophy, which is living to-day as truly as it 
ever lived eighteen centuries or more ago. 



12 GENERAL OUTLINE. 

The so-called Theosophical teachers and leaders of 
to-day are constantly referring in a very mysterious 
manner to Masters, of whom they always speak and 
write with the reverence due to divine beings; but the 
proofs of the very existence of these masters seem to 
depend upon the unproven assertions of individuals, 
who may be mistaken, even though by no means in- 
sincere. 

It is, however, with the question of masters in general 
with which we especially wish to deal, referring but 
incidentally to those peculiar Masters like "Koot- 
Hoomi," and others of recent newspaper notoriety, who 
do not seem to carry with them adequate credentials 
of adepthood. That there are true adepts in the 
world we thoroughly believe, and we are not prepared 
to deny even the extremest claims made for their 
marvelous abilities by those who have the sincerest 
confidence in their direct participation in the workings 
of a Theosophical Society; but we do emphatically 
declare that these true masters are approachable in 
purely psychic ways, and that their places of abode 
cannot be arbitrarily located in any special section of 



GENERAL OUTLIKE. 13 

this planet's surface. We will give a few plain 
definitions of terms often applied to these remarkable 
men and women — for women equally with men can 
attain the highest honors — so that those of our readers 
who are not fully familiar with the real meaning of 
occult terms, may the better understand all references 
made to masters, etc., in following articles from ourpen. 

Master signifies one who has mastered himself; one 
who by the development of a mighty will-force has 
brought his every appetite into complete subjection to 
his reason. His passions are his obedient servants in 
all things, and his body, therefore, responds perfectly 
to his thought; he is, therefore, no longer subject to 
the ordinary weaknesses and limitations of humanity. 

As we speak of the great masters of musical com- 
position and rendition, and the title granted by 
universities, Master of Arts, is only conferred after the 
lower degree of Bachelor of Arts has been conferred; 
and as Most Worshipful Master is a Masonic title of 
dignity, granted only to one who has taken many 
degrees in Masonry and proved himself worthy of 
distinguished honor in the Lodge, so do we naturally 



14 GENERAL OUTLIKE. 

infer that the origin of the term master, as applied to 
genuine adepts, was in simple recognition of the 
heights of knowledge they had scaled, and the dominion 
they had gained over the elementary forces of nature 
contained within their own human economy as well as 
in the realms of illimitable existence outside. 

Adept and initiate are words of almost the same 
import, and are, consequently, frequently interchanged 
with master to designate pretty much the same 
attainment. 

Magician is another word of tremendous significance 
and invites much investigation on account of its 
frequent application, on the one hand to those of most 
exalted and beneficent acquirements, and on the other 
hand to those who basely pervert their power and work 
wonders which result in disaster rather than in good 
to others and themselves. 

There are four typical kinds of magic, though but 
two sorts are usually referred to in popular treatises. 

Red Magic is the superlative power exercisable only 
by such as have passed the ordeal by fire — the last and 
greatest of the four initiations. 



GENERAL OUTLINE. 15 

White Magic is all innocent use of psychic force, 
regardless of the measure or degree of power attained 
by whoever uses it. 

Grey Magic is a semi-rightful and semi-wrongful 
exercise of the same power, and is used wherever 
people desire and seek to cultivate psychic energy with 
mixed motives and for accomplishing dubious results. 

Black Magic is simply selfish, soulless inversion of 
ability, and invariably recoils upon its perpetrator in 
consequences of intense disaster. ' 

Himalayan Brother (or Sister) is a purely poetic, 
symbolic title, drawn from a comparison of the height 
of the Himalayan peaks with the summits of lesser 
mountains. 

Whoever has succeeded in gaining a perfect dis- 
cipline over himself is a master, and whoever is truly 
a master can, as Professor Yan der Naillen of San 
Francisco truly says in his charming story, "On the 
Heights of Himalay," project his auric emanation 
over the entire globe, so that physical contact or 
geographical nearness to the scene of manifested action 
is entirely unnecessary. 



16 GENERAL OUTLINE. 

As we proceed with these essays we shall be able to 
show how the present movement, known as Mental 
Science, is a direct outcome of the principles incul- 
cated by universal Theosophy (divine wisdom). They 
are blind, indeed, who, assuming to be Theosophists, 
evince total ignorance of the very rudiments and 
foundation principles of Theosophy itself, which are 
all centered in this one supreme admission. 

Man contains within himself all power to regulate 
the objective universe, the very planets themselves 
being under direction of spiritual entities, who have 
learned the law of governing worlds by first obtaining 
complete mastery in their own micro-cosmic kingdom. 
The great reality, the Infinite Law, remains forever 
unalterable; but we, as we come to fathom it, can, 
through its aid, in harmony with its unalterable dic- 
tates, build a planet as easily as most of us can now 
regulate the petty concerns of our own diminutive 
households. Human power inside the Law has no 
limit. 



CHAPTER II. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY COMPARED 
WITH THE TENETS OE MENTAL SCIENCE. 

Despite some appearances to the contrary, there are 
so many points of close resemblance between Theoso- 
phy and Mental Science, that we trust it may prove 
both interesting and profitable to all our readers to 
show wherein these two remarkable systems of thought 
are in fundamental agreement; though, as may fairly 
be expected, differences in expression — rather than in 
fundamental doctrine, however — will be met with 
constantly during our researches into the teachings 
special to various differing, though not essentially dis- 
cording schools and peoples. 

In those remarkable books, u Art Magic" and "Ghost 
Land" — now out of print and extremely rare — pub- 
lished by their editor and translator, Mrs. E. H. Britten, 
fully twenty years ago, we encounter the same un- 
derlying truths running through all their pages, 

IT 



18 AXCIEXT AXD MODERX VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 

that students of Mental Science are now eagerly ab- 
sorbing from the lips and pens of the most radical and 
outspoken leaders of the new progressive cult. 

Though there will always probably be some specula- 
tion concerning the legitimate use of the term God, 
and also of the plural, gods, it is well to remark that 
ancient as well as modern Theosophists hare under- 
taken to account for all the phenomenal universe on a 
metaphysical basis, making it ultimately spiritual, not 
physical; and they have furthermore insisted with the 
most positive reiteration that man can find divinity 
only as he unfolds his own nature and comes to con- 
sciousness of the truly creative force stored up as 
utilizable energy within his own being. 

Man, according to true Theosophy, is no crawl- 
ing worm, unless in the very earliest caterpillar stage 
of his development, out of which he must rise, not so 
much by passive submission to the action of universal 
intelligence upon him, as by the force of his own in- 
herent vitality pushing its way out from the embry- 
onic stage of early immaturity, through successive 
stages of growth, till finally the man becomes a god, 



ANCIENT AND MODERN" VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 19 

or, in other words, a master, an adept, a hierophant, a 
red magician or whatever special term best conveys the 
idea of one who is now sovereign where he was once 
servant, and who can now control by his own might 
what was once, in the days of his ignorance, a ruler 
over him. 

All ancient peoples taught of two kinds of wonder- 
workers — mediums and adepts; and these belong to 
no one age or country alone, but are to be met with 
more or less at all times everywhere. It will be neces- 
sary for the elucidation of our theme to state plainly 
the distinction ever made by learned occultists and 
spiritualists between the two. 

Mediums are frequently met with in great abundance 
among communities of sensitives, especially in re- 
ligious orders, no matter whether these are connected 
with ancient systems of religion, whose very names 
are almost obsolete, or within the enclosure of modern 
sacerdotal churches. Mediumship of the unconscious, 
passive type, thrives in a non-intellectual atmosphere, 
where emotions are stimulated and reason held some- 
what in abeyance. 



20 ANCIENT AND MODEKN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 

The simple medium honestly describes himself or 
herself as merely an instrument played upon by unseen 
and often unknown forces. There is, therefore, always 
a degree of irresponsibility attaching to a purely 
mediumistic condition, which strong-willed, wide- 
awake, intellectual people often greatly dislike. 

Adepthood, on the other hand, commends itself with 
many charms to the strongest-willed and most self- 
reliant and courageous members of any community, 
as the claim made for adepts is that they are controllers 
of forces, not subjects to the unseen. There is, of 
course, a middle ground which may be fairly taken by 
any average man or women of sound common sense 
between these two extreme attitudes; and it is to the 
middle ground that we must most commonly appeal 
at present, because, while the extreme negative position 
is often weak and dangerous, the extreme positive is 
quite beyond the immediate, though not above the 
ultimate attainment of the rank and file of humanity. 

Mediumship, pure and simple, is largely tempera- 
mental and constitutional. It does not, therefore,, 
depend very much upon either the desire or knowledge 



A^CIE^T AJSTD MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 21 

of its possessors, while the powers of the adept are 
distinctly due to cultivation, though not necessarily 
free from natural bias occasioned by inherited pro- 
clivities. There is a clear basis of agreement and an 
easily defined basis for united action among the three 
schools of modern philosophy known respectively as 
Spiritualist, Occultist and Mental Scientist; but their 
points of contact are not disclosed until Mental Sci- 
ence appears as reconciler of the other two, who 
usually stand frowning at each other, as though fear- 
ful lest, if the claims of one be admitted the other will 
be weakened, if not overthrown. 

The present condition of India, no less than that of 
America or any European country, is anything but 
ideal; for though there are doubtless companies of 
highly developed individuals in Hindoostan, Ceylon 
and Thibet, whose stupendous magical attainments 
justify their proud title to masters par excellence, still 
these gifted ones have certainly not succeeded in bring- 
ing up the rank and file of the Hindoo people to a 
state of development, where they can throw off the 
oppressive yoke of the conqueror, and stand free and 



22 ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 

strong in the glory of their emancipated manhood and 
womanhood. 

To claim that a very few people are brilliantly and 
marvelously endowed far beyond the common standard, 
is of no use as an educator of the masses, unless the 
doctrine be vehemently emphasized, that every one who 
desires to reach similar heights is capable of doing so. 
Mental Science teaches that we can attain whatever 
we desire, provided only we respect the universal law 
of attraction, which is essentially changeless, and, 
therefore, cannot be played with by anybody. 

While there is a deep truth underlying the two 
most prominent doctrines of modern Theosophy — Re- 
incarnation and Karma, the application of these 
doctrines to the actual state of our present affairs is 
frequently erroneous and depressing in the extreme. 
The principal source of the mistake is in a wrong view 
of Karma, or sequence, which is ever operating, and is 
thus modifiable at every moment in our career. 

If it be true that all persons are not capable of the 
same unfoldment, is it not equally true that the 
desires of all in a given direction are not the same? 



ANCIEXT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 23 

Only our fundamental root desires are invariably 
changeless, and these look only toward the three 
essentials of welfare — health, happiness and prosperity. 

A very safe and encouraging view to take of our re- 
spective possibilities is that just so soon as we really 
want anything we are ready to take the first practical 
step toward getting it; but until a desire for something 
definite is aroused within us, there is nothing to 
prompt the impulse of search. In India, where the 
science and art of astrology are carried to a high pitch 
of perfection, a horoscope is cast for almost every 
child, and it is claimed that the aptitudes of the child 
are thus clearly indicated and his destiny revealed. 

It cannot be denied that pessimism and fatalism 
have cast their baneful shade over the Hindoo race to 
a large extent, and that is one of the chief causes of 
the non-progressive condition of the bulk of India's 
population; but beneath this debris of false philosophy 
the careful student of the Vedas can readily trace a 
much brighter and far more hopeful faith. 

When the Theosophical Society was started in New 
York in 1875, the objects of those forming it were 



24 ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 

easily summed up in what have been ever since the 
three professed aims of the society; viz.: To promote 
the sense of universal brotherhood; to study the 
various Bibles of the world, especially Aryan literature; 
and to promote the culture of the psychic force resi- 
dent in man, and to the furthest extent possible ex- 
press the latent mediumistic gifts, which so many 
people possess unconsciously. 

Since the formation of the society the policy has 
frequently been changed, and for the past several 
years a great outcry has been raised against hypnotism, 
with which all mental healing has been confounded, 
and many extremely puerile articles have appeared in 
the accepted organs of the Theosophical movement 
denouncing Mental Scientists as unrighteous inter- 
feres with Karma. 

Through a misunderstanding as to what Karma 
really is, a man of straw has been many times erected 
in its name, and a veritable Moloch has been produced 
before which the over-credulous and fearful have bent, 
and still bend, their knees in prostrate homage. 

No one who takes a clear, concise view of Mental 



ANCIENT AKD MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 25 

Science teachings can fail to note the consistency o£ 
the following propositions, which we respectfully sub- 
mit to all interested in cracking the Theosophical nut, 
and answering correctly the conurudruni of medium- 
ship. 

First — All men are potentially alike as to ability to 
control circumstances, and have their own say with 
regard to things about them; but all are by no means 
evenly developed actually. 

Second — Man does really contain within himself the 
elements of the universe, and is a creative, organizing 
and disintegrating intelligence; having power over the 
elements around him exactly to the extent that he has 
become a self-governing entity, endowed with a majes- 
tic realization of power over things, but not over other 
individuals, for all men are brothers. 

Third — The idea of one mind controlling another 
mind is incorrect. The correct position to take is the 
sovereignty of mind over all that we call matter, and 
the communion of mind with mind in co-operative fel- 
lowship, tending to the evolution of a state of genuine 
freedom, where all alike are free. 



26 AKCIENT AXD MODERN VIEWS OE THEOSOPHY. 

Fourth — Whenever one intelligent entity reaches a 
height above his companions, he becomes a radiating 
centre of helpful force, the inevitable tendency of 
which is to lift others to share his throne. This 
truth is beautifully expressed in the words of Jesus, 
the great initiate and hierophant of Galilee: U I being 
lifted up will draw all men unto me"; and, u The works 
that I do (am now doing) ye shall do also. 1 ' 

There is so close an agreement between the rules 
laid down for neophytes or candidates, chelas or 
postulants, in all the Oriental and mediaeval treatises, 
that it is not difficult to believe that all the schools of 
magic and prophecy on earth have had a common 
origin, and are, therefore, traceable to a unitary foun- 
tain head. Minor differences there are, especially with 
reference to the varying degrees of stress laid upon 
the practice of austerities as means of developing 
occult power. 

While the Hindoos have often carried ascetic 
practices to a revolting extreme, aud have considerably 
perverted their practice thereby, the Chaldeans, Greeks, 
and in many instances the Egyptians also, held wisely 



ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 27 

that a healthy, beautiful, robust body, as well as a 
well stored mind, led to the fullest and most reliable 
culture and expression of interior gifts and psychical 
endowments. 

This position is our own; and we are convinced that 
experience ever proves that while catalepsy and other 
intense nervous disorders are often accompanied by 
aberrant psychic demonstration, all really desirable 
phases of occultism are best encouraged by a life of 
order and symmetry. The perils of mediumship are 
only those besetting the weak willed and easily in- 
fluenced everywhere. While the advantages of an 
inviting kind of sensitiveness can scarcely be over esti- 
mated, it is plain to see that unrestrained susceptibili- 
ties to all kinds of psychic influence are anything but de- 
sirable; though however we may regret the annoyances 
to which they subject us, we can never rise superior to 
them save by strenuously cultivating that firm sense 
of individual right of sovereignty over all surround- 
ings, upon which Mental Science so powerfully insists. 

To simplify occult phraseology and bring the mys- 
terious sayings of such writers as Paracelsus and 



28 ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 

Cornelius Agrippa within the comprehension of an 
average nineteenth-century audience, is not the diffi- 
cult task which it at first appears; or it is not any- 
longer difficult after one has grasped the fundamental 
spirit of occult teaching in general, which is that the 
elements and all contained in them, as well as the sun, 
moon and stars, are all within one's self as well as in the 
universe outside the individual. The four principal 
elements, containing each its special type of elemental 
spirits, are to be traced within as well as without the 
human organism; and as no occultist denies the 
microcosmic theory of man, it is easy to show the direct 
connection which exists between archaic and mediaeval 
Theosophic teachings and those of the clearest and 
most advanced of Mental Scientists to-day. 

The four elements may be summarized thus: The 
first and lowest is earth, the abode of the gnomes. 
These correspond to the purely terrene desires of hu- 
manity; viz., such thoughts and impulses as look only 
to the gratification of material desires and the satis- 
faction of exculsively physical demands. 

The second element, water, is said to contain undines 



ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OF THEOSOPHY. 29 

or naids. These water sprites are in direct relation 
with intellectual pursuits, and are man's masters or 
servants according as he has or has not gained posses- 
sion of his mental faculties to the extent of making 
them the obedient instruments of will. 

The third element is air, the abiding place of sylphs, 
which are significant of human imaginations, which 
fly as in a vast expanse of ether between the sky above 
and the water and earth beneath. Perfect control 
over imagination is the key to immense power on the 
psychic plane or in the subjective realm; and who- 
ever has developed in occult directions sufficiently to 
control his thoughts far enough to determine the 
nature of his dreams, and regulate all that approaches 
him during sleep of any kind, is far advanced on the 
road toward that perfected goal of attainment, which 
is complete dominion oxer fire — the fourth and highest 
element, which holds the salamanders, a race of beings 
directly connected with the interior affections of hu- 
manity. 

Beyond these four great elements universal ether is 
postulated by ancient Theosophists as the universal 



30 ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OE THEOSOPHY. 

mother substance, or material of the cosmos, out of 
which all things proceed, and into which all things 
must at length return. All Theosophical concepts 
are essentially metaphysical in the highest degree, 
but not properly in the bewildering sense in which 
Heinrich Hensoldt and other recent writers evidently 
regard them. Man is a representative of the uni- 
verse, an omnium gatherum, and through the law 
of attraction he is able to draw to himself what- 
ever he chooses, but only to the extent of his 
knowledge of, and compliance with, the law; other- 
wise human experiences are incomprehensible and ap- 
parently victimized by chance, which has, of course, 
no existence in reality. It is at this point that The- 
osophy and Mental Science are completely at one, as 
all systems must be which are based on the one only 
solid foundation of acknowledgment of undeviating 
law and its consequently changeless sway. With the 
better understanding of mutual positions, which is 
surely coming, Theosophists and Mental Scientists 
will see that the leading doctrines of both are the 
same; and it is only to be regretted that so many pro- 



AXCIEXT AND MODERX VIEWS OF THEOSOPHT. 31 

fessed Theosophists allow themselves to be unduly 
influenced by pretentious leaders, instead of conduct- 
ing, as they should, original researches in the realm 
of psychical investigation. The very curse of fear, 
which must be lifted before true progress is possible, is 
augmented by the foolish diatribe against hypnotism 
and the gross misrepresentations of mental healing, 
which have often debased the writings and injured the 
speeches of people, who confound things which radi- 
cally differ in their blind assaults upon everything, 
which fails to conform to their own pitiably narrow 
view of what constitutes the sole legitimate domain 
of mental action; and as some who will read these 
articles are probably not quite sure of their ground, 
or clear in their perception of mental healing, we can 
hardly do better than end this second essay with a 
plain, brief statement of the common ground occupied 
by all intelligent Theosophists and Mental Scientists. 

There is an inexorable law of sequence called in 
Sanskrit Karma. The operation of this law is identical 
with Helen TVilmans' conception of the behavior of 
what she calls in English the Law of Attraction. 



32 ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS OE THEOSOPHY. 

Through the working of this law we can become per- 
fect masters of all our situations, according to our 
knowledge of the law and compliance with it. 

A scientific mental treatment respects this law, and 
in strict conformity with the changeless order of the 
universe, causes are set in motion which produce inevi- 
tably the desirable results sought. There is no other 
way of gaining and maintaining health on any plane 
than by working in and with the law. Whatever one 
knows he may assist others to know also; whatever 
one can do he can aid others to do likewise; and as we 
are all bound up together in the warp and woof of 
brotherhood, and are all interdependently related, 
whatever state is reached by one causes a vibration to 
which others can respond. The only way out of 
bondage to old Karmic effects of an undesirable nature 
is to set to work to change our own way of thinking, 
and thus our attitude to all about us, for surely but 
only thus can we take even the first step on the royal 
road, which leads at length to the Temple of Adepts. 



CHAPTER III. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS— THE 
ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM. 

In these days when comparative theology, philology 
and ethnology are among the most popular, as "well as 
interesting of studies, it is vain to seek to rightly ap- 
preciate one system of religion without taking an 
equally kindly and inquiring glance at all; and though 
even now the resources of knowledge on this recondite 
theme may be very limited in the hands of the general 
public, compared with the almost boundless oppor- 
tunities for investigation open to the special student, 
still the generally available information at present 
extant is amply sufficient to supply the pressing need 
of the hour, which is, in our judgment, at least, a 
clear and sympathetic understanding of each other's 
views, that we may the more readily sweep away the 
manifold obstacles which yet stand in the way of a 
complete parliament of nations and federation of the 
globe. 

33 



34 FLASHES OF LIGHT FEOM ANCIENT KELIGIONS. 

Religious instincts are innate, and, therefore, in- 
eradicable. They can be wisely cultured and directed, 
or they can be abnormally perverted and so distorted 
as to prove banes instead of blessings to society. They 
have been, and they still are, very frequently distorted; 
but that is no reason why they should not be intelli- 
gently reviewed, and an effort made to direct them into 
such channels as they would naturally flow in were no 
attempt made to force them into unnatural grooves. 

The two great divisions of religion are commonly 
styled natural and revealed. 

The former is supposed to be the inevitable outcome 
of human evolution and observation; while the latter 
is usually thought of as a special gift from heaven 
which man, unaided, could not possibly attain. 

Though there is a substratum of verity in these 
definitions, they are far too arbitrary for our purpose. 
We shall, therefore, endeavor to rationalize somewhat 
upon the real origin of these alleged two kinds of re- 
ligion. 

Natural religion is not all fear, though there is an 
element of dread in it. We all shrink more or less in 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 35 

the presence of a mighty force of any sort, whose 
power is seemingly far greater than our own, and to 
the extent that this energy appears before us as a de- 
vastating and relentless force do we seek either to 
propitiate or oppose it. The natural objects of 
worship among the ancient Egyptians are not difficult 
to account for, as they are mostly animal, vegetable 
and other forms in nature, which manifest some ex- 
ceptionally marked qualities, which man germinally 
possesses and desires to exercise, but as yet is unable 
to give freedom to those powers. The bull which was 
carried in solemn procession on all festive occasions in 
the Nile Delta was worshiped on account of its great 
strength, and was astronomically associated with the 
Zodiacal sign Taurus, which ancient astrologers de- 
clared presided over the fecundation of the earth; and 
as the earth enters Taurus about April 20, and remains 
in that sign till near the end of May, it very 
naturally follows that the symbol of this constella- 
tion should be, at least, poetically connected with 
abundance of flowers and fruits, and all the warmth 
and wealth of approaching midsummer. 



36 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 

In countries where the inhabitants had little means 
of protecting themselves from the inclemencies of the 
winter, with its pelting rains and driving storms, they 
intimately associated the idea of beneficent tutelary 
divinities with the summer season, while the winter 
months seemed to them to be under the jurisdiction 
of most unfriendly powers. This simple, natural re- 
ligion indulged in by the common people expressed it- 
self in a thousand artful forms, the relics of which are 
clearly traceable in the multitudinous hieroglyphics, 
which adorn or deface the almost numberless monu- 
ments, pyramids, obelisks and other monoliths, which 
are now arresting and holding the closest attention of 
the ever increasing band of archaeologists, whose re- 
searches into Egyptian, Asyrian and other remains are 
throwing a broad flood of light upon the evident cra- 
dle of Christianity, as well as of Judaism and all the 
classic religions and philosophies. Who wonders any 
longer at the worship of Ibis, the sacred bird, when 
one has paused to consider that birds fly, and we do 
not? As there is within us an intense desire to sur- 
pass our present limitations, we turn adoringly to a 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AXCIEXT RELIGIONS. 37 

manifestation of power, which, some day, we may 
equal and transcend. 

Anubis, the dog-headed divinity, is no doubt an 
astronomical figure of Sirius, the bright star supposed 
by ancient astrologers to specially favor hunters as 
they pursued the chase; but astronomy and its sister 
science aside, the very attributes of the dog itself call 
forth our admiration and our desire to imitate, notably 
the wonderful instinct popularly connected with re- 
markably acute sense of smell, for which the canine 
family is so specially remarkable. 

The worship of the cat was probably suggested by 
that animal's clairvoyance, or singular power to see in 
the dark, which is a characteristic peculiarity of the 
feline race. 

The river Xile was worshiped because its periodical 
overflowings inundated the land to the end of irrigat- 
ing the soil, and rendering certain an otherwise impos- 
sible luxuriant harvest. 

Revealed religion, rationally regarded, was not an- 
tagonistic to so-called natural religion, but it was far 
profounder and more scientific, reaching the people 



38 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 

only through the most learned teachers and prophets, 
who appeared among them and doubtless put forward 
many scientific truths, in metaphorical imagery, sus- 
ceptible of two distinct interpretations. The higher 
and more essential meaning being known only to the 
learned, the people at large accepted the symbols pre- 
sented to them according to their limited knowledge 
and fanciful conceptions of the nature all about them. 

Egypt certainly seems to have derived her splendid 
system of solar worship from a grander and older 
clime, and there are positively no valid grounds for 
disputing the testimony of Plato and his ancestor, 
Solon, to the reality of Atlantis, from which original 
centre of high attainment the early Egyptians may 
easily have derived the wonderful knowledge of mathe- 
matics, astronomy and astrology, embodied most sig- 
nificantly of all in the great pyramid at Gizeh. 

The Atlantian theory is no more difficult to explain 
than is the upbuilding of the United States of America 
during the past four hundred years. No one under- 
takes to say that the Indians of the prairies would 
have— left to themselves — built up the present Ameri- 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AKCIEXT RELIGIOXS. 39 

can civilization during the course of the past four 
centuries. But the Spanish settlers in the days of 
Columbus, and later on the pilgrims from Holland and 
other parts of Europe, laid the foundation for a new 
Europe on American shores. 

If the Atlantian theory be intelligently sifted it 
will be found to tally perfectly with all we know of 
the evolutionary development of nations; for if At- 
lantis had been advancing for many thousands of 
years, and then in the height of its prosperity, or, at 
all events, before its fall, bequeathed some of its 
wealth and knowledge to Egypt, its most distinguished 
colony, Manetho's account of the long reign of gods 
before the commencement of what is known as the 
historic period, commencing with the Pharaohs, is 
easily explained. The gods were god-like men of su- 
perior achievements to the Egyptians in all respects, 
and they, taking possession of the land and establish- 
ing themselves as conquerors, introduced their own 
laws and customs, established their own institutions 
and made the natives tributary. The Egyptian re- 
ligion, as to its final outcome, is summed up in the 



40 FLASHES OP LIGHT FROM AKCIEKT RELIGIONS. 

"Book of the Dead," which gives elaborate accounts 
of the various doctrines and practices of the Egyptians, 
proving them to be decided spiritualists, aware of their 
close intercourse with multitudes of intelligent ex- 
istences unseen by ordinary mortal eyes. Many in- 
scriptions on ancient monuments and papyri give 
illustrations of healing performed through knowledge 
of psychology and the art of magnetizing. There is 
nothing in modern mesmerism or hypnotism which 
cannot be traced to a parallel in some old Egyptian 
custom. 

No persons held higher rank or were more highly 
esteemed than the Therapeutae or healing priests, who 
devoted themselves to psychological and magnetic 
more than to medical modes of cure. The conviction 
that health was divine, and that intercourse with 
divinities gave those thus privileged the power to 
charm away disease, was so deep rooted in the minds 
of these ancients that they never thought of question- 
ing the divine authority of those who could prove the 
high source of their power and commission by demon- 
strating their power over infirmities of every sort. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIEKT RELIGIONS. 41 

One has only to read the book of Exodus containing 
the story of the plagues of Egypt, and the tests given 
by Moses to prove that God was with him, to see that 
the lesson taught is plainly that the power to heal ac- 
companies the true white magician; while the un- 
scrupulous soothsayer, who is but the paid satellite of 
a corrupt monarch, can show many signs of his ability 
to produce glamour, and also to work mischief by mis- 
directed occult power. While some alleged Theoso- 
phists of the present day turn a deaf ear and blind eye 
to the beneficent truths of mental healing, ancient 
Theosophists welcomed and prized it as an infallible 
criterion of genuine attainment in spiritual or mysti- 
cal directions. 

Persia differed from Egypt in some respects, and so 
did Chaldea; but the ancient Persians and Chaldeans 
were all solar and fire worshipers; that is, they 
regarded the heat and light of fire as directly expres- 
sive of the universal creative and sustaining energy. 
Persian dualism has been frequently so misunderstood 
as to be grossly misrepresented, as the prevailing idea 
has been that Zoroaster and the Zend-Avesta teach the 



42 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGION'S. 

eternal persistence of two opposing forces in the 
universe, the one good and the other evil; but this is 
not the case. 

Parseeism is pure Universalism, though it does draw 
a sharp line of distinction between order, as personified 
in Orniuzd, and disorder as represented by Ahriman ; 
but these seemingly rival powers are eventually 
proved to be brothers, and at the end of a long cycle 
of time they are admitted together to the realm of 
cloudless light. 

Under the symbol of the Zodiac, all ancient peoples 
portrayed their various ideas of the differing elements 
and agents at work in the phenomenal universe, or, 
rather, in the unseen realm of causation, producing 
through their activities palpable effects in the exterior 
realm of nature. 

The six summer signs, beginning with Aries and 
ending with Virgo, were looked upon as beneficent; 
while the six winter constellations, beginning with 
Libra and ending with Pisces, were superstitiously 
regarded as malific by the untutored, though the really 
learned of antiquity always took the high ground dis- 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AXCIEXT RELIGIONS. 43 

tinctly taken by the author of the first chapter of 
Genesis, the forty-fifth of Isaiah, the entire book of 
Job and other parts of the Old Testament; viz., that 
however adverse certain appearances might be, how- 
ever difficult to understand and however hard to bear 
while they lasted, the origin of all is good, and the 
final outcome good; therefore, in reality there is 
nothing but good in the universe. 

In some form or other the doctrine of the infinity 
and eternity of good only has been proclaimed by all 
the great teachers of the world, and the more diligently 
one searches the ancient records, the more thoroughly 
convinced must he become that no such revolting 
dogmas as the final extirpation or endless condemna- 
tion of a human soul played any part in the religious 
concepts of the wise men of old. 

Ignorance, timidity and thirst for undue power over 
others on the part of a designing priesthood must 
have led to the invention of such dogmas; and it is 
quite useless for professing Theosophists of to-day to 
claim that their garbled mistatements concerning 
Oriental philosophy emanate from adepts or Mahatmas 



44 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AKCIEXT RELIGIONS. 

of the highest grade. Either the modern English and 
American Theosophists fail to interpret aright the 
messages they receive from Mahatmas, or the mys- 
terious brotherhoods with whom they are in communion 
are not Mahatmic in any true sense of the word, for 
nothing can be further from the sublime teachings of 
Masters of Wisdom, than the vagaries of people who 
utterly fail to state the case correctly concerning the 
true source of enlightenment, the real nature of the 
spiritual world, and the essential ethics of moral and 
mental healing. 

A truth common to all esoteric systems is that the 
only reliable means of arriving at an accurate knowl- 
edge of truth is through the opening up of one's own 
interior being; therefore, the seat of authority is with- 
in — not without. Herein lies the essential distinction 
between prophetic teaching and sacerdotal assumptions. 

The prophet has ever been the people's friend; the 
priest has often been both slaveholder and slavedriver. 
The prophets of all religions have counseled a system 
of introspective training or self-examination, not for 
the purpose of finding out how bad we are, but how 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 45 

great and good we are, when we have reached our in- 
most. The thought of man's essential divinity has 
ever been uppermost in the prophet's thought, and 
what the Buddhas and other illumined ones claimed 
for themselves, they claimed for all humanity. 

When the Theosophical Society adopted as its motto, 
"There is no religion higher than truth/' it verbally 
committed itself to the true esoteric doctrine; but its 
subsequent history has proved that many who have 
since joined it have either determined to dominate 
their fellow members, or else to lie down passively to 
be dominated by them. 

True it is that all religions have had their seers, 
shrines, temples and ceremonials; and these have often 
been corrupted; but primarily there was no other intent 
on the part of those who established Schools of the 
Prophets, and prepared sequestered groves for oracles, 
than to afford the best possible opportunity for the 
natural development and expression of interior powers. 

True it is that for all ordinary purposes of daily 
usefulness, one may associate freely with all sorts of 
people, and engage in any kind of employment best 



•46 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ASTCIEKT RELIGIONS. 

suited to the individual temperament, and still be 
conscious of interior illumination; but for special 
purposes of spiritual discovery, other and subtler con- 
ditions need to be observed; and first among these is 
to meet the demand for quietude and retirement from 
the hum and bustle of the exterior world. 

Of the use of hasheesh and all sorts of drugs, per- 
fumes, unguents, etc., freely made use of in the East 
to-day, as well as in olden times, we have nothing 
favorable to say, as we do not consider the visions of 
opium eaters reliable, nor do we desire to develop 
hyperaesthesia with its concomitant psychical aberra- 
tions. 

To discriminate clearly between natural and artificial 
expression of psychic ability, is the task allotted to all 
who seek to truly enlighten the world on the score of 
human possibilities; and though sometimes wonder- 
fully accurate predictions are made by persons in an 
abnormal state, many misleading superstitions are 
sure to be encouraged, and the ends of science are 
hampered, rather than furthered, by the confusion 
produced by catalepsy and hysteria. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 47 

The ascendancy of one mind over another is the 
thing most condemned, under the generic name of 
hypnotism, by those very Theosophists who seek to 
establish a hierarchy, and compel submission to self- 
appointed dictators, and blind subserviency to the 
commands of unknown masters and very abstruse 
literature. Genuine mysticism, as found in all systems 
of religion, is compatible with the most perfect indi- 
vidual liberty; indeed, without such freedom one can- 
not become a mystic; for a mystic is ever one who 
looks within, rather than without, for guidance, and 
takes counsel with his own soul. 

Retirement from the bustling avocations of a 
worldly life is necessary for the attainment of any 
original knowledge, and few there are who can im- 
mediately comply with the condition necessary for 
obtaining direct light concerning the nature of the 
universe, from the universe first hand. 

As all growth is gradual, and all studies are pro- 
gressive, we may give a few practical hints for 
beginners who wish to enter upon the true path and 
tread fearlessly and profitably the mystic way: 



48 FLASHES OP LIGHT FEOM A^CIEOT KELIGIONS. 

First — Satisfy yourself definitely as to what it is you 
want to learn; tlien determine to put yourself in rela- 
tion with it, and thereby draw yourself to it and it to you. 

Second — If you can find in the ranks of your 
acquaintance one mind more fully developed than the 
rest, more fearless and original in its thought and 
action, you may profitably place yourself en rapport 
with such a mind and vibrate with it, as through the 
law of consociative action two are better than one, 
when the two agree as to the object of their search; 
and f uther, it is but reasonable to decide that one who 
has already advanced in a given direction can help 
another to advance along the same road. 

Third — Keep your own counsel regarding your 
determination; do not invite all sorts of prying curious 
thoughts to invade the sanctuary or laboratory where 
you are working; but if you come across two, three, 
or, indeed, any number of truly congenial spirits, who 
are seeking for what you are seeking, admit them into 
your fellowship, and whether you can or cannot meet 
together bodily at stated intervals, agree to unite 
psychically regardless of where your flesh may be. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AKCIEOT RELIGIONS. 49 

Fourth — Take note of all your successes, even partial 
successes, but make no note of non-success, mis-called 
failure; for in reality there are no failures. You 
either have or you have not yet succeeded. If you 
press steadily forward regardless of seeming lack of 
results, you will assuredly awake some day to the glad 
consciousness of genuine triumph. "Heaven is not 
reached by a single bound." 

Fifth — Steadfastly refuse to accept anything as true 
because some one says it is so. The gnostic and the 
believer are always two. No believer is a gnostic, and 
no gnostic is a believer; for the gnostic attitude con- 
cerns what we have inwardly discerned or outwardly 
perceived, as truth has been confirmed to us by our 
own experience. What lies as yet outside the range 
of our experience is unknown, but not unknowable to 
us. 

The true mystic is the calmest, strongest, sweetest, 
most patient, hopeful and industrious type of man or 
woman conceivable, living in a haven of rest, where 
the tempestuous billows of conflicting authorities and 
opinions disturb him not. Insulated, though riot 



50 FLASHES OF LIGHT FROM AKCIEOT RELIGIONS. 

isolated, lie is surrounding himself evermore and more 
completely with an auric envelope, which is a protect- 
ing cloak of genial atmosphere, shutting him securely 
in from all the storms about him. 

Though the true mystic becomes such through 
silent, patient interior development, no sooner does he 
receive a truth and see through a proposition, than he 
leaves for awhile his mental hermitage to give out 
this new blessing to mankind in whatever way seems 
to him most appropriate. The sure results of such a 
life must show themselves in ever-increasing wisdom, 
strength and beauty. Thus the true mystic is a well 
spring of peace and health, a source of benediction to 
all humanity. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH — CONQUEST OYER IT — THE 
TRUE SPIRITUAL AND BODILY RESURRECTION. 

Though the popular conventional meaning attached 
to the word death is familiar to everybody, this very 
common word possesses a totally different meaning to 
all who have penetrated even slightly the exoteric 
covering of the great esoteric mystery of transforma- 
tion or transmutation. To the ordinary mind physical 
dissolution is sooner or later inevitable, and despite 
the so-called consolations of religion and the wide 
spread hope of immortality, of which the world is full, 
death appears to the majority of people as an unwel- 
come rupturer of all their fondest ties and an introduc- 
tion to a vague unknowable hereafter. We are well 
aware that modern spiritualism has already done much 
to destroy the fear of death, and to the faithful 
spiritualist death cannot be the gloomy king of terror 
that it is to the materialist, who sees in it the annihi- 
lator of individual consciousness, nor to the trembling 

believer in everlasting torment, who fears divine 

si 



52 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 

wrath more than he trusts in divine goodness; but 
even the most progressive and hopeful thinkers of the 
present day are altogether too prons to overlook the 
higher and inner meanings of the word death, and 
thereby escape the valuable and inspiring lessons they 
would otherwise learn from a due contemplation of its 
allegorical significance. 

The New Testament writings, especially the epistles 
of Paul, are full of mystical allusions and phraseology, 
to which the average reader and commentator seams 
entirely blind. Paul was a gnostic and a Theosophist, 
and a very well instructed one. His training in the 
school of Gamaliel, and his intimate acquaintance 
with Greek and Egyptian doctrines and literature, 
enabled and caused him to address his pupils in lan- 
guage savoring strongly of the intensely mystical; 
and so well informed does he take his correspondents 
to be on esoteric meanings of language that he does 
not pause to explain to them his use of mystical ex- 
pressions, but simply employs them in his letters as 
common, every day expressions. 

Among these no statements are more striking than 



THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 53 

the following expressive sentences: "You are dead." 
and "I die daily." 

No reference whatever is here made to dropping the 
physical body, and we have never encountered any one 
who seems to have supposed that death was there used 
in any but a figurative sen£e; and now let us inquire 
what the metaphor really stands for. 

The great Egyptian pyramid has been mistaken for 
a tomb, while it is in reality the grand Astro-Masonic 
temple of antiquity, intended by its founder or de- 
signer to embody for all coming ages, in exact mathe- 
matical and geometrical lines and figures, thesublimest 
knowledge pertaining to the universe and man's place 
therein. Neither Piazzi- Smyth, Le Grange nor any 
other modern astronomer rises to any thing like the 
true gnostic or Theosophic height, when attempting 
to decipher its meaning and read the past and foretell 
the future by its aid. Though the old Testament 
prophesies, and the Apocalypse in the new Testament 
may be reasonably referred to as teaching and pre- 
dicting in harmony with that monumental evidence of 
the profound learning of the wise men of old, the 



54 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 

pyramid is susceptible of a much wider meaning even 
than that given to it by Albert Ross Parsons, whose 
great work, "New Light from the Great Pyramid," is 
the profoundest and most scholarly treatise on this 
majestic pile yet given to the public. 

It is not necessary to conclude that a great cosmic- 
catastrophe is memorialized and immortalized in that 
stupendous structure; rather would it be said by the 
enlightened student of universal Theosophy that the 
sublime drama of creation, in all its varied acts, is 
there depicted in a series of descriptive tableaux, pre- 
sented in the form and uttered in the language of that 
only absolutely exact science, mathematics, without 
which we have no means of accurately expressing our 
ideas, or working them out to desired fulfillment. 

The chamber of life — the King's chamber — contains 
what appears to the uninitiated to be a tomb or emblem 
of mortuation, saying to every beholder — remember, 
man, thou art but dust, and thou must surely die. To 
any who are instructed in the mysteries the sugges- 
tion is exactly the reverse and reads — remember, man, 
thou art immortal; thou canst rise triumphant over 



THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 55 

death, conquer the tomb and rise to endless glory. 
The modern Theosophist who uses mystical language 
blindly as a parrot, speaks glibly enough of the seven- 
fold constitution of man, of a higher triad and a lower 
quaternary, and of a separation of principles at death, 
but because he holds no key to the interpretation of 
the latter sentence, he builds up an erroneous and par- 
ticularly misleading and anti-Theosophic dogma con- 
cerning post mortem existence. 

The true mystic, be he alchemist, Rosicrucian or 
aught beside, knows that the secret of death is the 
secret of inward organic transformation, and that how- 
ever much or however little scientific foundation there 
may be for a theory of the literal conversion of the 
baser metals — tin, copper, iron, silver, etc., into gold — 
there is a profound and demonstrable truth hidden 
under this guise — a truth which it has ever been the 
special province and mission of the world's Illuminati 
to teach by degrees to the unenlightened, until they 
in turn become qualified instructors of others. 

The story of the European Rosicrucians of the 
middle ages in Germany and elsewhere is full of in. 



56 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OE DEATH. 

terest, though covered with the veil of deep obscurity. 

The emblem of the cross meant to the Rosicrucian 
the perfectly harmonious polarization of the individual 
and, eventually, of human society in its great entirety. 

The Golden Age, toward which the mystics looked, 
was no millennium inaugurated by the personal advent 
of an illustrious teacher of mankind, but a state of 
society to be ushered in by means of an enlightened 
fraternity of illumined workers, who were to go, 
apostle-like, into all the world and reveal to all whom 
they found ready the secret of triumph over every 
phase of limitation and infirmity. 

The Philosopher's Stone and Elixir of Life have 
always been vulgarly confounded with some grossly 
material substance and potion, while these two most 
highly expressive phrases referred originally to the 
knowledge to be gained and the fruits of initiation 
open to all who faithfully complied with the graphic 
instructions given to neophytes by masters in mystical 
science. It is recorded in the fragmentary histories 
of the Rosicrucian s, accessible to the general reader 
who has a taste for the curious in literature, that a 



THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 57 

youth or maiden could, at an early age, enter a 
Rosicrucian Academy, or hall of learning, and upon 
graduating as brother or sister in the first or most 
elementary degree, receive a portion of the white stone 
given to all successful candidates on passing the 
necessary ordeal, sufficient to last for sixty years 
when carried out into the world, whither the young 
disciple was sent as a missionary instructor. This 
morsel of sacred rock was claimed to possess manifold 
protective as well as curative virtues; as it could ward 
off disease and danger equally, heal the sick and enable 
its possessor — provided he remained faithful to the vows 
of Lis order — but not otherwise — to prolong his life 
in spite of all threatened accidents, till, at the expira- 
tion of the appointed sixty years, he would be recalled 
to the retreat or college, and there given an oppor- 
tunity during a few years of retirement and special 
study to go forth again, equipped with another piece of 
the sacred stone, sufficient to last for another sixty 
years. Then if he was found faithful during this 
second probation, he would be again recalled that he 
might take the third degree, and be sent forth again as 



58 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OE DEATH. 

a teacher on a higher plane, endowed with still loftier 
and more mysterious potencies. 

The well-known tradition that some of the Rosi- 
crueians have lived between two hundred and three 
hundred years, and been recognized through old paint- 
ings, etc., is not an idle tale; and though it may be 
difficult to bring forward adequate historical data to 
prove the most interesting and astounding of the 
claims put forward on behalf of this most illustrious 
order, there is little reason to question the substantial 
accuracy of the general claim, which is that man has 
power to prolong his life on this planet indefinitely, 
provided he learns and obeys the law which makes 
such prolongation possible. 

If we multiply sixty by three we get one hundred 
and eighty, as the result; then if we add to one 
hundred and eighty the twenty years and more which 
the young candidate had lived before taking the first 
degree, the total is over two hundred years; and then 
we must also add at least fourteen years for the two 
periods of retreat of not less than seven years each, 
intervening between the active period of the first and 



THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 59 

second, and the second and third degrees. This gives 
at least two hundred and twenty years as the age of a 
successful Rosicrucian, when he finally disappears from 
the ordinary sight of men. As to what becomes of 
him then the records are ominously silent; but they 
suggest a transformation of the body, resembling that 
which all the great spiritual leaders of the world are 
said to have attained. 

The stories of Enoch and Elijah are cases in point, 
where the narrators hint that, instead of death, the 
body was transformed and translated so that it was 
henceforth no longer subject to the law of gravitation, 
and therefore able to go in obedience to the will of its 
possessor and controller whithersoever he chose. The 
mystery surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, and 
the disappearance of the body from the tomb, is 
accounted for by profound mystics on the basis of 
transmutation, it being declared in at least a few rare 
old manuscripts, in the private collections of a few 
rare scholars and students, that Jesus transformed his 
body while in the sepulchre, so that it was ever after 
obedient to his will; that it was not dissipated, stolen, 



60 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 

removed or resurrected in the old state, but completely 
changed, and that every truly triumphant hierophant 
ultimately gains the same power to dominate his body. 

We are aware that this discussion involves wading 
in very deep water, and seems to carry us far out upon 
the tide of limitless speculation; but there are some 
practical lessons to be learned and deductions to be 
drawn from the histories of Rosicrucians and other 
mystics, which are specially applicable to all students 
of Mental Science, and exactly in line with all the 
most advanced and truly scientific teaching on the 
subject of man's potential victory over the flesh, by 
virtue of the commanding force of spiritual supremacy. 
No doctrine of theology, and no current superstition 
is absolutely foundationless. Underlying all strange 
speculative theories reposes a base of truth, and under 
no doctrine is there a firmer foundation, when we get 
to it, than lies beneath the statement, that were there 
no sin (error) there would be no death. 

Death is the penalty we pay for our mistakes. It is 
not an arbitrary punishment by any means, but it is a 
consequence and one we do not like. We all shrink 



THE MYSTICAL YIEW OF DEATH. 61 

from being compelled to do anythiug or go anywhere; 
and what makes the prevailing views of death so dis- 
tasteful is that they are all built upon the supposition, 

l that at some time or other we shall be forced out of 

1 

j our bodies, away from our friends and congenial haunts 
| and occupations. It is this thought of compulsory 
submission to the unknown and inevitable that makes 
the prospect of transition forbidding, and especially so 
to persons whose one aim in life is to attain to moral 
and intellectual freedom and enjoy the privilege of 
self ownership. 

Paul asks and answers a question well when he says: 
"0 death! where is thy sting? grave! where is thy 
victory ?" and replies : u The sting of death is sin, and the 
strength of sin is the law." "Sin is the transgression 
of the law." That is what it is, and that is all it is. 

When we are no longer ignorant of the Law of Life; 
when we intelligently comply with the law's require- 
ments, we shall be able to live as long as we please in 
our present state, and then follow the magnet, what- 
ever and wherever it be that beckons us to other and 
more advanced planets, for life upon which, and 



62 THE MYSTICAL VIEW OP DEATH. 

journey ings between which, we shall be well equipped, 
as we shall have learned how to conquer the elements 
within us, and thus attract at will the elements 
necessary to fashion bodies adapted to our new habitat 
and increased areas of locomotion. 

The true resurrection is our own victory within our- 
selves over all that holds us through fear in bondage 
to the gross attraction of the outer earth. The 
Philosopher's Stone is wisdom. The Elixir of Life is 
the perennial fountain of youth and health within us, 
which the truly fearless can discover and win. 

While the mediaeval veil has hidden the true mean- 
ing of alchemy and all pertaining thereto; and though 
the writings of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa and 
other mystics are blind indeed without a key, we are 
now coming to the discovery of that key, and lo! we 
find it in ourselves, and no where else. When once a 
man or woman has come to know the reality of 
potential human greatness, it is but a steady succession 
of progressive steps, straight forward to the ultimate 
goal of our desires — complete dominion over circum- 
stances — and thus victory over death. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE0S0PHY m EGYPT. 

Though India, rather than Egypt, is commonly 
regarded as the birth place of Aryan Theosophy, and 
the scriptures of Eastern Asia are, indeed, full of 
Theosophic teaching of the profoundest type, as well 
as abundantly supplied with records of the mysteries, 
we must not overlook the claim of Egypt as one of 
the oldest centres — if not the very oldest — on earth, 
of all that arcane wisdom and extraordinary demon- 
stration of psychic power, with which the name of 
Hindoostan is usually pre-eminently associated. 

The name of Egypt signifies chemistry, the science 
above all others which opens the door to the mysteries 
of magic; for while the mediasvel philosophers of 
Europe — many of whom were profound philosophers — 
had much to say concerning alchemy, which many 
modern chemists affect to spurn— alchemy is only 
occult or mystic chemstry as astrology is only occult 
or mystic astronomy; or, to use different language, 
alchemy and chemistry are the inner and outer 

63 



64 THEOSOPHY 1^ EGYPT. 

branches of a single science; and the same may be 
truthfully said of astrology and astronomy, which, 
when rightly understood, are no more antagonistic 
than arithmetic and geometry, though one deals 
with number and the other with form; or they may 
be likened to anatomy and physiology, which are both 
included in anthropology. 

It is through Egypt that we gain some insight into 
the true antediluvian world — the large and beautiful 
island of Atlantis, which gave its name to the Atlantic 
Ocean which now covers the larger portion of it, 
though fragments of that ancient land are still said to 
remain above the water and to be still inhabited. If 
the statement of the historian Manetho is correct, 
that Egypt was divinely governed for thirteen thou- 
sand, nine hundred years in the long ago, then this 
traditional era of ruling gods may certainly have 
reference to the Atlantian period, when Egypt was 
rescued from primitive barbarity by the introduction 
of the most highly civilized modes of life imaginable. 

Theosophy teaches that gods (greek theoi) are only 
highly unfolded human entities, not a race of beings 



THEOSOPHY IJS" EGYPT. 05 

distinct from mankind; and as the same godly possi- 
bilities are concealed in the depths of every individual, 
the only distinction which can be fairly made between 
gods, demi-gods and ordinary men and women, is that 
those who compose the first of the classes enumerated 
have developed their latent abilities to such an extent 
that they have become rulers over realms in which 
they once were servants. 

Those in the second class (demi-gods) are not per- 
fected hierophants who have gained complete dominion 
over matter, but they are far on the road to such 
superlative attainment, and can consequently perform 
many wonderful works, which, to those in the third 
rank, (ordinarily undeveloped human entities) appear 
like direct violations of universal law, or subversions 
of natural order. 

Whoever built the greatest of the pyramids in 
Egypt must have differed widely from the bulk of his 
or their contemporaries in understanding of the 
mathematics of the universe. Such a monument as 
Albert Ross Parsons so learnedly describes in his 
wonderful book, "New Light from the great Pyramid/' 



66 THEOSOPHY Of EGYPT. 

could not have been constructed merely or chiefly as a 
tomb or granary, or as a storehouse and sepulcher 
combined. It is assuredly a temple of science wedded 
to religion. It is a Masonic structure so built and in- 
ternally arranged that whoever is initiated into the 
sublime mysteries of the Grand Lodge, and has become 
a Master Mason, is in possession of the secret of crea- 
tion; and as all things in the universe are accomplished 
through the agency of Law, whoever knows the pro- 
cess can become a former, disintegrator and reformer 
of worlds, as well as of terrestrial machinery. 

The astronomical system of the ancient Egyptians, 
which we regard as a direct perpetuation of the much 
older Atlantian system, deserves close and earnest at- 
tention, as it furnishes a key to the mystery of being 
and existence furnished so thoroughly nowhere else. 

Instead of starting out as modern students are ac- 
customed to do, with the utterly unwarrantable assump- 
tion that this is a material universe, regulated by blind 
law, or else managed from without by an extra-cosmic 
Deity, the Egyptian astronomer of olden time regarded 
every sun, star, planet, satellite, comet, meteor or other 



THEOSOPHY IH EGYPT. 67 

body which attracted his gaze as an expression of 
omnipresent and illimitable intelligence, embodied in 
some special form, which met his glance in fulfillment 
of some veiled purpose, which it was the province of 
the student of nature to unravel as far as possible. 

The untutored savage in the Nile Delta may have 
worshiped snakes, crocodiles, birds, beasts and other 
existences in great variety, but to the learned the 
common emblems held sacred by the illiterate 
possessed an interior meaning and represented dif- 
ferent aspects of scientific and religious truth. The 
names now given to the constellations have many of 
them been handed down from the remote past, and it 
is to Egypt, as a distributing centre of knowledge, 
(derived doubtless from Atlantis originally) that we 
owe much of our present knowledge of exact science. 

To all who are at present interested in mental modes 
of healing the Egyptian therapeatae must prove a 
very interesting class. These remarkable personages 
were frequently, though not invariably, attached to 
the temples and the priesthood. They were in all 
respects very similar to the various types of healers 



68 THEOSOPHY IK EGYPT. 

with which we are familiar to-day, ranging from the 
administrant of drugs, and the passive "healing 
medium," to the wise adept who claimed power to 
accomplish wonders through an understanding of the 
truths of being, a knowledge which could be imparted 
to faithful students or disciples. 

Connected with the Egyptian temples were institu- 
tions known as Schools of the Prophets, open to both 
sexes equally, within the walls of which instruction 
was given in all the sciences and arts; and further- 
more the best conditions possible were afforded for the 
natural expression of psychical endowments, so that 
the youthful candidate was assisted in every way to 
the roundest and fullest development. 

The therapeutists usually believed themselves in 
some mysterious way to be in communion with heaven; 
yet the more intelligent among them made no arrogant 
claim to supernatural endowments y nor did they fail to 
ascribe much of their success to the force latent within 
them, an energy which only needs to be acknowledged 
to declare itself in an unmistakable manner. 

As there are numberless parallels in modern ex- 



THEOSOPHY IN EGYPT. 69 

perience, it may prove interesting to pass in rapid 
review a few of the methods in vogue in ancient 
Egypt, which are said to have been highly successful 
in charming away ailments, and in protecting the 
persons and property of individuals from the attacks 
of disorders and dangers of every kind. Xot only 
were the bodies of the healers looked upon as sacred, 
but from their clothing and from every article with 
which they had been brought in contact, a healing 
virtue was supposed to proceed; and while much of 
ignorant superstition doubtless attached to many of 
these external forms, there was unquestionably a 
residue of truth in even the most extravagant claims, 
as there is in similar doctrines which are being 
preached to-day. 

The working of the universal law of attraction is so 
varied and intricate that one feels quite at a loss to 
define its operation by way of limitation. The path- 
way of affirmation is always far safer than that of 
denial, and as we cannot always separate auto-sug- 
gestion from outside influence — and it is not necessary 
that we should — it seems reasonable to infer that the 



70 THEOSOPHY m EGYPT. 

Egyptian therapeutae of long ago worked their 
wonders just as all sorts of healers are working theirs 
at the present moment; viz., through a more or less 
blind co-operation with a universal force in nature, 
whose residence is both within and without the in- 
dividual. 

The Spiritualism of the Egyptians was both sublime 
and grotesque, as it extended from the most exalted 
conceptions of the homogeneity of the universe to the 
most trivial beliefs concerning the resuscitation of the 
physical body. The puerilities of the Egyptian system 
were, however, superficial and confined to the compar- 
atively ignorant, who, because they were satisfied with 
what appealed vividly to their outward senses, did not 
care to inquire deeper into the meaning of the cere- 
monies in which they engaged. 

The magic of Egypt at the time of the country's 
degeneracy, during the period of the latter Pharaohs, 
is well described in the Bible in the book of Exodus; 
but that document gives us very little insight into the 
primal majesty of the magical system, unless Moses 
be regarded as its representative; and if that view be 



THEOSOPHY IK EGYPT. 71 

taken of Moses, who is said by tradition to have been 
the son of an Egyptian priest who had married a 
Hebrew woman, the contrasts between two kinds of 
magic, as recorded in Exodus, are very instructive as 
well as vivid. The Pharaonic dynasty was the reign of 
the native princes, who came to the throne as the 
successors of those august ancients whom we trace to 
Atlantis. At first these governors were men of peace, 
and not oppressors; but they grew haughty, cruel and 
tyrannical; and as no nation can grow and thrive when 
under the yoke of thralldom, the once great Egypt be- 
came the prey of the spoiler and eventually forfeited 
all national independence. 

As the greatness of a people consists not in the ele- 
vation of a minority above the rest, but in the rise of 
the multitude, whoever seeks to elevate the mass to 
his own higher level is not only a benefactor of others 
who are dependent upon him for their first incentive 
to a higher state, but he secures his own position as 
righteous leader the more firmly; for no matter how 
rebellious a people may become after having grown 
restive under tyrannical misrule, the very men who 



72 THEOSOPHY IN" EGYPT. 

would be the first to rise in arms against the oppressor, 
even though he be their own countryman, would fight 
heroically in defense of a government which secured 
to them their rights and liberties, and was so consti- 
tuted that the wiser enlightened the ignorant, while 
the stronger strengthened as well as protected the 
weaker. The tale of Egypt is not unlike that of 
Greece, Rome or any other empire or republic which 
has succeeded it. The peculiar fascination which the 
Nile country possesses for the modern traveller and 
archaeologist is the abundant testimony its marvelous 
monuments offer to the splendor of a hoary past, so 
distant that Herodotus makes no mention of it. 

The religious concepts of the enlightened always 
differ radically from those of the unenlightened in this 
important respect, that the ignorant must have an 
image to represent to them a deity enthroned without, 
to whom sacrifices and oblation must be paid. The 
truly wise place the seat of divinity within and appre- 
hend the divine reality of the universe, not through 
external idols, but through their own deepest con- 
sciousness of right. 



THEOSOPHY IK EGYPT. 73 

The lesser pyramids of Egypt, of which there are 
more than fifty in close proximity to the great pyramid 
at Gizeh, resemble the "miracle in stone" in their out- 
ward appearance, save that they are much smaller and 
far less exalted edifices. The striking dissimilarity 
between the great one and the lesser many, is that it 
has no inscription either upon its surface or within its 
walls, while they are covered without and within with 
every sort of hieroglyphic. The hieroglyphics are, of 
course, instructive and suggestive, as the very word 
means the glyph or cipher employed by the hiero- 
phants, or wise ones, and the very word, therefore, sug- 
gests immediately to the thoughtful observer that 
u things are not what they seem" for the always valid 
reason that realities are immeasurably greater than 
appearances. 

Let the hieroglyphics stand for what they may to the 
deepest esoteric student, the ordinary reasoner can see 
much in them to provoke serious thought and profita- 
ble reflection. Why think you that Ibis, the sacred 
bird, was venerated, if not because the power of flight 
possessed by birds is inherent in man, and man feels 



74 THEOSOPHY IX EGYPT. 

that some day lie will exercise it — therefore, he reaches 
out to the bird-like condition of emancipation from ter- 
restrial trammels, when he, like the feathered tribes of 
air, shall be able to propel his body without the need 
of cumbersome mechanical appendages? Why think 
you the bull, the cat, the dog and a host of other ani- 
mals were deified, if it were not in token of man's 
inherent consciousness that the special powers ex- 
hibited diversely by these venerated beasts are at 
length to be collectively expressed by men and women? 
The dog with keen detective instinct, the cat with 
power to see by night as well as day, the bull pos- 
sessed of wondrous strength with which man could 
not compete — these were adored as impersonations or 
embodiments of forces within humanity, which it is 
man's province to unify in expression, so that the hu- 
man race shall be in fact, as well as in name, the 
supreme ruler upon earth. 

Turning to the distinctly Theosophical meaning of 
these emblems, we can see that to the Theosophist, or 
divinely wise one, as the term signifies, all these forms 
in nature were but symbols of man's own inherent 



THEOSOPHY IX EGYPT. 75 

powers; and this brings us to the celebrated Hermetic 
doctrine of microcosmus and macrocosmus. The Her- 
metic writings of Egypt, which have long disputed for 
the palm of greatest antiquity among all the books of 
the world, with the Hindu Vedas, abound in state- 
ments to the effect that human life is the total ex- 
pression of all the life in the universe. A single 
human entity, or conscious unit, may, therefore, be com- 
pared to the grain or drop which a chemist analyzes, 
and through analysis thereof determines the con- 
sistency of the measureless bulk of which that globule 
is a faithful representative, or multum in parvo. This 
view of man is essentially that of the highest Mental 
Science of to-day, which proclaims unfalteringly that 
our human birthright is to exercise every divine pre- 
rogative. Man is a creative force, and as he comes to 
know himself as this, the elements of the world 
around will bow in complete submission to his will. 

The Egyptians of old evidently took the most ad- 
vanced ground possible on the relation of the sexes. 
The conception of an exclusively male deity was utterly 
foreign to their thought; it is now r here depicted upon 



76 THEOSOPHY OS" EGYPT. 

their artistic monuments, and nowhere is it inculcated 
in their sacred literature. Osiris, the father, Isis, the 
mother and Horus, the child (both son and daughter 
of Osiris and Isis) constitute the Trinity of the 
Egyptians, a threefold idea which is certainly beauti- 
ful and natural, and carries out the thought of orderly 
and harmonious family relations in the universe. 

The sacred emblems most highly esteemed because 
of their deep significance as expressive of eternal veri- 
ties were the circle, triangle, square and cross. The 
circle denotes infinity and eternity, as it is beginning- 
less and endless. The triangle signifies expression by 
means of the only mathematical figure which shows 
diversity, and at the same time perfectly preserves the 
thought of unbroken unity. The square and the cross 
are closely related, as the cross divides whatever it 
undertakes to divide into four equal parts; while the 
square, which is the foundation in Masonry, denotes 
perfect equity, and is well mentioned in the commonest 
speech of to-day when a square man and a square deal 
are spoken of. 

The ancient religion known as Judaism was 



THEOSOPHY Of EGYPT. 77 

largely of Egyptian origin, and while the Hebrew 
race may have been the first tribe to embrace it, the 
mysterious Kabala, which holds the key to the in- 
most mysteries of Judaism, is closely related to the 
universal Wisdom Religion of antiquity, whose chief 
centre was for centuries and millenniums in Egypt. 
Those who are desirous of penetrating deeply into the 
particulars of Egyptian Theosophy should certainly 
make a study of "The Book of the Dead,'' which is 
from first to last a Theosophic treatise. This extraor- 
dinary work has recently been well translated into 
English, and is procurable through any publisher who 
deals in "occult" literature. As Lady Caithness says 
in her encyclopedia of Theosophic teaching, u The Mys- 
tery of the Ages," this treatise which must be many 
thousands of years old — though Max Muller assigns to 
the Rig Veda of India the most venerable place of 
all — teaches a complete process of initiation to those 
who follow its guidance, which, when fully carried out, 
leads the neophyte into the holy adytum where the 
secrets of life, transition and immortality are clearly 
revealed. The material "Book of the Dead*' has often 



78 THEOSOPHY m EGYPT. 

been confounded with the important instruction of 
which it is the embodiment; consequently, there are 
many curious legends concerning it; perhaps the most 
remarkable of all is that the book is so precious that 
without it in the unseen realm, after physical dissolu- 
tion, the soul wandering on in darkness will be lost. 
The obvious meaning which underlies this eulogy of 
a book is that the teachings therein contained are so 
essential to human welfare, that they are just as 
necessary in one state of existence as in another; and 
this view coincides precisely with the general teach- 
ings of the Egyptians concerning the post-mortem 
state. Readers of Swedenborg, who have grown 
familiar with his graphic delineations of the "other 
side," will not be very greatly astonished at the intense 
realism which pervades the Egyptian scriptures, which, 
to the average Christian, comes either with the force 
of a stupendous revelation, or is rejected as an absurd 
if not blasphemous attempt to describe the indescrib- 
able. 

The spurious doctrine foisted on to present-day 
Theosophy by ill-instructed readers of Sanskrit tomes, 



THEOSOPHY I^T EGYPT. 79 

whose real meaning escapes them — we refer to the 
much talked of ''separation of principles at death" — 
very plainly concerns not a physical but a mystical 
death, according to the old Egyptian seers and sages. 

As the individual soul must die to the lower, and 
rise to the higher expressions of what is within it, and 
this through an evolutionary process, so must the 
entire human family, as a race, do the same. With 
this interpretation in mind, we are ready to enter the 
King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid and gaze coni- 
prehendingly upon the lidless sarcophagus therein, 
beholding in that expressive symbol, first, of mortua- 
tion and then of resurrection, the eventual flight of 
the triumphant ego above the limits of earthly bond- 
age, to a state where perfect liberty is the consequence 
of perfect growth from within outward. It can never 
be too rigorously insisted that however much help we 
may derive from without ourselves, the truly per- 
manent initiation into the highest mysteries of being 
can only come from self-culture, self-elevation and 
the constant acknowledgment of man's inherent 
power to become sovereign over all environment. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE THEOSOPHY OE IKDIA. 

It seems scarcely possible, within tlie brief limits o£ 
two or three short essays, to do more than lightly 
touch upon the immense subject which we are now 
venturesome enough to introduce to the readers at- 
tention; but as so much has already been written upon 
it, and learned and lengthy treatises are accessible to 
all who have leisure and disposition to enter deeply 
into its profound intricacies, we shall content our- 
selves with seeking to condense and simplify, for the 
benefit of busy people, some of the great teachings of 
the ancient sages, which, though they are clearly 
enough stated in the original Sanskrit tongue, are not, 
as a rule, at all clearly apprehended save by a very few 
intensely metaphysical minds in the Occident, and not 
all of these are capable of bringing their own tran- 
scendental ideas into contact with the general intel- 
lectual status of the average reader of to-day. 

80 



THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 81 

It must be borne in mind from the outset that the 
Hindu mind is essentially transcendental and idealistic, 
and, therefore, does not need to have metaphysical 
terms defined as carefully as we are called upon to 
define them when addressing Western audiences. 

The Hindu temperament is pre-eminently medita- 
tive and introspective. The typical East Indian im- 
presses a visitor as an individual who lives far more in 
the subjective than in the objective state; therefore, he 
comprehends subtle distinctions in terms which prove 
extremely baffling to the average American or Euro- 
pean, no matter how intelligent or shrewd he may be. 
It is, indeed, often intensely obvious that keen Yankee 
shrewdness is a positive barrier in the way of direct 
apprehension of metaphysical subtilties. 

Take as a first example the rudimentary terms being 
and existence. Though the difference between them 
is clearly the distinction between cause and effect, 
how frequently we hear them confounded in daily 
Western speech . The Latin verbs esse and existere are 
by no means alike, and because we may conjugate the 
one is no proof that we can conjugate the other. 



82 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

We often hear it said that Buddhism teaches that ex- 
istence is evil, while all Oriental philosophers declare 
that being is good and good only; but in this state- 
ment there is no sort of contradiction to the Oriental 
intellect, which never even remotely confounds the 
two. 

Pope's immortal aphorism, u Whatever is is right," 
is the foundation for the Mental Scientist's declaration, 
all, or the all, is good. Indeed, the two phrases are 
virtually identical. The poet's theology was. so far as 
his biographers inform us, that of the Roman Catholic 
Church liberally interpreted. It is, therefore, highly 
improbable that he gave credence to the extreme ideas 
of such later writers as A. B. Child and others, who 
have confounded the Tightness of what is with the 
wrongness of much that exists. 

It was from the Oriental founts of knowledge, or 
else through direct intuitive perception of truth, that 
Dr. Quimby, Dr. Evans and other pioneers in the Mind 
Cure movement of the present century derived their 
essential doctrines; and now that the Theosophical 
Society has circulated more or less garbled views of 



THE THEOSOPHY OP IXDIA. 83 

Sanskrit teachings all over the world, the public is be- 
coming ready to look more deeply than heretofore into 
the foundations of the parent philosophy, whence so 
many modern isms have sprung. 

All is good and whatever is is right, are two of the 
grandest and truest sentences ever penned; and in ac- 
cordance with their real meaning, the intelligent 
world is now prepared to establish a system of ethics 
and therapeutics calculated to revolutionize the earth. 
The interest now being taken in Oriental literature 
opens a ready door of access to the long hidden treasures 
of India, and the Parliament of Religions held in 
Chicago during September, 1893, has surely opened 
fhat door so wide that it can never be closed again. 

Comparative theology is paving the way for sacred 
anthologies in place of sectarian bibles; and one of 
the most humanizing effects of this study is that it 
completely dissolves the walls of stupid self-righteous- 
ness and opens a door of mutual good will between all 
peoples on earth. 

The two best known Hindu systems of Theosophy 
are the Brahminical and the Buddhistic; and while 



84 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

these seem to have separated in the time of the latest 
of the Buddhas, SakyaMuni Gautama, the hero of Sir 
Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia," both systems of 
thought are contained in original Hinduism, which far 
antedates the period of the division. 

It is to Brahminism, pure and simple, that we are 
originally indebted for some of the grandest and most 
practical metaphysical ideas embodied in the Men- 
tal Science system of to-day. The true Brahman 
acknowledges a super-personal Reality, which he calls 
Para-Brahm, or the Unconditional Absolute. This 
deific power fills the universe to the exclusion of all* 
else; therefore, there is no place for a rival principle of 
eviL 

The expressions of this one universal principle of 
life are primarily regarded as three in number; conse- 
quently Brahminism contains a Trinitarian as well as 
a Unitarian doctrine of the divine principle. Brahma 
conveys the idea of the absolute revealed to finite un- 
derstanding as creator. Vishnu represents the same 
universal and omnipotent power in its activity as 
Preserver. Siva is again the same essential Being, 



THE 1HE0S0PHY OF INDIA. 85 

functioning as Destroyer and Reproducer. To the 
ordinary mind there may be conveyed some idea of 
three distinct divine persons, but to the learned pun- 
dits of the East no such conception is possible, as they 
cannot conceive of the universal Principle of Life be- 
ing in any way broken or divided. The caste system 
of the ancient Brahmans was by no means oppressive 
or unjust, whatever it might have become in later 
times. Not the system itself, but the abuses of the 
system are what the saintly Buddha protested against; 
but when a system has become so overlain with folly 
that it is almost impossible to see the tree by reason 
of the size of the parasitic growth which is strangling 
it, it is not wonderful that many an impulsive re- 
former poses as an iconoclast, exclaiming, u Cut down 
the tree, for it is but a cumberer of the ground. " When 
the caste system is traced to its beginning, it will be 
discovered that its roots are in an intelligent admission 
that all persons are not adapted to fill the same offices 
or to take equal rank in the social order. The first of 
the four representative castes is composed exclusively 
of princes, nobles and all who are qualified to occupy 



86 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

exalted stations in the land. This is, or rather was, a 
natural division of some of the people into a ruling 
class; and as belief in the value of good heredity was 
very strong in India many thousand years ago, it 
was an easy step to build up an aristocratic clan, 
which soon became haughty and despotic and grew to 
saddle unreasonable burdens upon all who occupied 
inferior states. The second caste is made up of all 
second-class rulers, teachers and officials, who, though 
endowed with authority and belonging to the ranks 
of the cultured, are not held equal to the ruling caste. 
The third caste is composed of all who engage in gen- 
eral business; while the fourth, which is the lowest 
caste, is the grade of those who perform the most in- 
ferior kinds of labor. 

A very fair idea of the Oriental caste system can be 
gained in England to-day, where there are four distinct 
divisions of the populace, viz.: First, royalty and no- 
bility; second, gentry; third, trades people; fourth, the 
working class, whose occupation places them in popu- 
lar esteem below the rank of the shop-keepers. 

Though we are far from advocating anything so 



THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 87 

arbitrary, and oftentimes ludicrous and oppressive as 
a caste system as it now exists in any part of the 
world, we can still see that in some form or other it 
seems impossible to avoid, at least, a partial recognition 
of it, though one should espouse the cause of National- 
ism or Populism, and endorse the Socialistic views of 
such a writer as Edward Bellamy, who, in "Looking 
Backward," very clearly describes the different orders 
of American society in his prophetic Utopia, to be real- 
ized in the United States of America by or before the 
year 2000 of the present era. 

Hereditary caste cannot possibly be justifiable un- 
less it can be demonstrated that the law of hereditary 
transmission so works as to confine virtue and genius 
within the narrow confines of privileged families; and 
as we can often prove the reverse of this, we cannot 
continue to ask the question so long attributed to 
Philadelphians in particular, "Who was your grand- 
father?" What are you? is the only question we are 
justified in asking when our desire is to impartially 
bestow honor wherever honor is due. The position of 
the female sex in India is a much disputed query 



88 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

among modern advocates of woman's emancipation all 
over the world. A few such women as the Pundita 
Ramabai protest against the conventional estate of 
women in Hindustan, just as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 
Susan B. Anthony and other leaders of the Woman's 
Suffrage Movement in America protest against the 
present legal status of women in forty-two out of the 
forty-five states which are now comprised in the 
American Union, but with the exception of such an 
honorable minority it can hardly be said that the 
average woman has hitherto rebelled against her lot. 

The idea of marriage in India among the native 
population is not at all what it is in Europe, and still 
more does it differ from the distinctively American 
thought of a matrimonial union. Marriages are not 
arranged for when boys and girls are approaching ma- 
turity, as in France and many other countries where 
parental discipline in this regard has been for many 
centuries vastly more stringent and coercive than it 
has ever been in America. They are consummated in 
early childhood, sometimes even in infancy. The bride 
and bridegroom grow up together as though the rela- 



THE THEOSOPHY OF IXDIA. 89 

tion o£ husband and wife resembled that of brother 
and sister. The two families are almost like one, and 
the girl is brought up to show almost the same defer- 
ence to her future husband's family as to her own. 
Though this system has its drawbacks and disadvant- 
ages, it works about as well in nine cases out of ten as 
any other system yet devised; and if we are to have 
anything approaching an ideal marriage system, our 
first step must be taken in persistently individualizing 
boys and girls, not only after birth, but even before 
they have left the womb. 

From the theological standpoint men and women 
are necessarily equal; for, as Sir Monier Williams and 
many other able writers inform us, their deep study 
of Hinduism has convinced them that the sacred books 
of India teach the equal divinity of male and female, 
gods and goddesses taking equal ranks in the Hindu 
Pantheon. 

The two great doctrines of Reincarnation and 
Karma are inseparable from Oriental philosophy; and 
though they are often somewhat obscurely taught, 
when we penetrate a little distance into the arcana of 



90 THE THEOSOPHY OF ItfDIA. 

Oriental thought we shall see that these doctrines are 
not difficult of acceptance, provided we grant the 
original premise of the Hindu philosopher, which is 
that the true ego, or unit of consciousness, which is the 
real man, is an essentially changeless, homogeneous 
entity, and that in its outward expressions it takes on 
many garments, wears many dresses, uses many im- 
plements, but is itself always intact and indissoluble. 

The primal doctrines of involution and evolution 
form the staple of Oriental philosophy. Involutionary 
processes are occult and take place in the psychic or 
subjective state, while only evolutionary processes are 
objective. Involution is the cause of which evolution 
is the effect. The maxim certainly seems indisputable 
that nothing can possibly be evolved which has not 
been previously involved, but whatsoever is involved 
is susceptible to the law of evolution, which is only a 
declarative process. 

The essential unit of life, or monad of consciousness, 
as it is sometimes called, is, in the eyes of Oriental 
thinkers, the primal cause of all the innumerably 
varied expressions of vitality in the so-called three 



THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 91 

kingdoms below man — the mineral, vegetable and 
animal; therefore, it is a complete reversal of the 
Theosophical doctrine to say that man, as to his real, 
inner selfhood, has sprung from protoplasm and been 
evolved upward, the view taken by Theosophy being 
that man, as a spiritual entity, has fashioned form 
after form until at length the human form is built 
through the intellectual activity of the spirit after it 
has produced, in orderly succession, all the forms 
which precede the human. 

Reincarnation, as a word, is scarcely susceptible of 
improvement, unless we use the phrases, repeated ex- 
pressions and successive embodiments, both of which 
state the idea as plainly as language can well express it. 

The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, or 
metempsychosis, is not a truly Theosophical tenet, and 
careful comparison of the most reliable Oriental writ- 
ings does not lead to, but rather away from, the con- 
clusion that it is a genuine part of the esoteric Hindu 
system. 

H. P. Blavatsky, in her very interesting narrative of 
Asiatic travel, "In the Caves and Jungles of Hindu- 



92 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

stan," instances the case of a very illiterate and super- 
stitious mother who believed her son to be reincarnated 
in the body of a vampire bat; but that sagacious 
author made it plain to her readers that the wise men, 
or pundits, of the East teach no such doctrine; indeed, 
they laugh at and totally disown it. 

James Freeman Clarke in his u Ten Great Religions," 
William Alger in his u Critical History of the Doctrine 
of a Future Life," and several other distinguished 
modern scholars, have interpreted transmigration 
aright by declaring it to be a cipher language in which 
the doctrine of evolution is taught backwards. We 
are not going to be animals. We have in the long ago 
expressed ourselves through all lower forms than the 
human. Henceforth our expression will be through 
nobler human bodies. 

The objections to the doctrine of Reincarnation are 
many, but objectors usually dodge or evade the main 
point when they talk of retrogression; for the doctrine 
is that until every one of us has had a perfect gestar 
tion and has, after birth, built up a perfect organism, 
we have not conquered on this plane of expression. 



THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 93 

But so soon as any one of us has enjoyed one perfect 
terrestrial existence, we are liberated from the wheel 
of change and no longer in subjection to Karmic law. 
To quote from Arnold: "Thus shall the Kalpas end." 

The word Kalpa signifies an age or period of 
cycles, in which the soul accomplishes final victory 
over all terrestrial limitations, and rises at length to a 
state of complete sovereignty over all the elements; so 
that fire, air, water and earth have become entirely 
subservient to the will of the ail-conquering hierophant 

The doctrine of Mahatmas, so rigorously insisted 
upon by the Theosophical Society in general, is a far 
less difficult doctrine to define than is generally 
supposed. Mahatma is a Sanskrit title of dignity, 
meaning one in whom Atma (the true abiding ego) is 
greatly unfolded. If the evolution of the individual 
consciousness, through the agency of repeated em- 
bodiments, be admitted, then it stands to reason that 
at some time there must come a period or stage in ex- 
pression, where the final embodiment on this planet 
is reached. 

Chelas, or probationers, are the disciples of the 



94 THE THEOSOPHY OF INDIA. 

Mahatmic Masters, and it is claimed by Theosophists 
that H. P. Blavatsky was at least a chela of high 
rank. She never claimed to be an adept. She distinctly 
said she was a disciple of the Masters, but not one 
herself. This declaration is made in many of her 
writings; and when one takes into consideration the 
monumental work accomplished by her in writing u The 
Secret Doctrine," in four volumes, only two of which 
are in general circulation^ to say nothing of her 
numerous other publications, it does seem at least 
probable to all students of psychic phenomena that 
she must have received some powerful assistance from 
some source inaccessible to the multitude. 

The title Himalayan Brothers is purely figurative, 
and does not, therefore, refer to the special locality in 
which the adepts live. The Himalayan peaks are 
covered with perpetual snow; and as the phrase is at- 
tributed to Buddha, "All shall reach the sunlit snows," 
which means that all shall eventually attain to a 
degree of spiritual victory where perfect enlighten- 
ment, conjoined with matchless purity, shall be their 
happy portion, this poetic name has been assigned 



THE THEOSOPHY OF IKTIA. 95 

to all who, anywhere, have reached the spiritual 
altitude symbolized by the metaphor. 

We are not justified in believing that a race of 
Mahatmas dwell in the solitudes of Thibet, and are 
there organized into a limited occult fraternity; nor 
are we induced by reason to uphold the story that 
these wonderful adepts precipitate messages on ma- 
terial paper, so that they are physically received in 
England or America. But knowing what we do of 
thought transference, we are ready to affirm that 
wherever any one can be found whose psychical vibra- 
tion is sufficiently in accord with a Master's thought 
to answer to a master's call, telepathic communication 
can be, and is established between the adept and the 
chela, regardless of how great the distance may be 
between the residence of the one and that of the other. 

To the dispassionate enquirer into the mysteries of 
Hindu Theosophy, much that seems to the average 
reader either incredible or absurd becomes luminous, 
so soon as we remove the dust of attached fable to 
seek to know the real basis on which the strange 
traditions rest. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ORIENTAL MODES OE WORSHIP INTERPRETED BY 
THEOSOPHY. 

It has so long been customary for European and 
American missionaries to style every Oriental — unless 
converted to Christianity — a pagan, a heathen or an 
idolator, that this utterly fallacious idea of our Asiatic 
brethren has come to so far prevail, that even the 
World's Parliament of Religions, held in connection 
with the great Exposition at Chicago in 1893, failed 
to deliver the minds of the great bulk of so-called 
orthodox Christians from the thralldom of this ground- 
less and debasing superstition. We use the word de- 
basing advisedly; for we well know to what fearful 
lengths of fanaticism and cruelty such erroneous con- 
ceptions of our neighbors are liable to lead us if we 
allow ourselves to seriously or even thoughtlessly en- 
tertain them, for the reason that religion is, in the 
eyes of multitudes, a matter of such supreme moment 
to the human family, involving, according to popular 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 97 

supposition, the endless destiny of human souls, that 
no one who really believes that hundreds of millions 
of his fellow beings are entirely outside the pale of 
salvation here and hereafter can be expected to treat 
them as brothers and sisters, but, rather, as vessels of 
wrath fitted for destruction. Recent researches into 
the facts of the case have pretty clearly revealed the 
unwelcome truth to many, that the beliefs, cere- 
monies — in a word — all that pertains to one system of 
ancient religion is common to all, with only such va- 
riations in detail as serve to characterize the peculiar 
habits of the people, among whom the systems under 
review have sprung up. 

The great religions of the world can be divided un- 
der two heads, and styled respectively Ethnic and 
Catholic. 

Ethnic religions seem like certain plants and ani- 
mals, indigenous to the soil which gave them birth. 

Catholic religions are susceptible of transplantation, 
as they are far more readily adapted to the require- 
ments of humanity, regardless of special race and local 
peculiarities. 



98 ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 

In every system of religion there are also two dis- 
tinct sets of elements, the esoteric and the exoteric; 
or, to use other language, the spiritual and the literal. 
Of all systems it may truly be said: u The letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth lif e." Around the letter all fierce 
controversies have waged, while those benign teachers 
who have serenely contemplated the spirit have ever 
been opposed to persecution for form's or opinion's 
sake, having stood out boldly for essentials vs. acci- 
dentals. 

To so broad a nature as Theodore Parker's, the seem- 
ing idolatry of the Italian peasantry was not offensive, 
because he could see through the poorness of their 
expressions to the richness of the essential human 
aspiration, which was feebly struggling to reveal itself 
through very imperfect media. 

It is absurd for the Roman Catholic, the Anglican 
Ritualist or the devout adherent to the imposing ritual 
of the Greek church to protest against those Oriental 
usages from which his own have certainly been 
modeled; for the time has now passed when any ad- 
vocate of a single system can longer delude the 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 99 

thinkers in any society by means of the time-honored 
subterfuge that Christianity is a distinct revelation 
from heaven, entirely separate from all preceding reve- 
lations, and the only religion approved by heaven — 
therefore, the only one containing a passport to im- 
mortal blessedness. 

We do not wish to be reckoned among the foes of 
religion, nor is it our intention to even insinuate that — 
because all religious systems have been naturally 
evolved — they are, therefore, false. There are three 
decided views of Christianity entertained by three dis- 
tinct schools of teachers at present. With two of 
these, viz,,, the schools which respectively declare 
that Christianity is a direct and unique revelation, and 
that it is a worthless fabrication, we are not in sym- 
pathy, our convictions being in accord with those who 
admit that it is one system of faith out of many, and 
that its origin was neither more nor less supernatural 
than that of all other systems among which it stands. 

So far as what is termed idolatry is concerned, the 
Protestant has always charged the Romanist with 
idolatry, and the Romanist has, equally with the 



100 ORIENTAL MODES OE WORSHIP. 

Protestant, laid the charge of idol worship at the door 
of Brahmans, Buddhists and all others who have 
erected and paid honor to statues and pictures in their 
temples, precisely as many Christians venerate similar 
articles in their churches. 

Judaism and Mohammedanism are generally con- 
ceded to be free from the charge of idolatry, because 
images are not permitted either in Jewish synagogues 
or Mohammedan mosques; yet if the captious visitor 
should undertake to sharply criticize portions of the 
orthodox, or even of the mildly conservative Jewish 
ritual, he might point to an idolatry of the scrolls of 
the law which are deposited in a sacred ark, before 
which a lamp is always kept burning, and which are 
taken in and out during the public service with more 
or less imposing ceremony. Of course we know well 
enough that no Jew who understands anything of his 
religion pays homage to the material parchment on 
which the words of the Torah are inscribed; but the 
same honesty which impels us to say this, leads us to 
say, also, that no Roman Catholic adores the wood, 
marble, bronze or ivory out of which the figure of a 



ORIENTAL DIODES OF WORSHIP. 101 

saint or angel or the fashion of a crucifix is con- 
structed. 

But we must not stop here. The same fair judg- 
ment must be applied to our friends in Eastern Asia: 
and of them it must be said, if the truth be spoken, 
that they no more believe that an image of Buddha is 
Buddha himself than a Romanist believes that a statue 
is the spiritual being it is intended to represent, or 
than a member of the Grraeco-Russian communion be- 
lieves that an icon, or holy picture, is the saint in 
heaven to whom the Russian peasant devoutly prays 
while kneeling before an effigy. It is so very difficult 
for the human mind, even when highly trained meta- 
physically, to comprehend what lies entirely beyond 
the reach of the senses, that lapses into idolatry seem 
perpetually inevitable, unless materialism — which is 
worse than idolatry — gains ascendancy and excludes 
from the horizon of its devotees all expectation of 
anything superior to that most external form of ex- 
istence commonly called material. 

A study of theory and practice of mental healing is 
a great help toward a clear comprehension of what is 



\ 



102 ORIENTAL MODES OE WORSHIP. 

really meant by the idols and the worship offered at 
their shrines. Though it is always possible among 
cultured people to practice mental healing pure and 
simple, and to so give silent and absent treatments 
that the best results may £ollow v it is by no means a 
universal experience among the thinkers along meta- 
physical lines to-day, that wisdom dictates the com- 
plete abandonment of external aids to concentration. 
The psycho-physicists of Washington and other cities 
are proving the practical utility of methods very much 
in accord with Henry Wood's system known as "Ideal 
Suggestion Through Mental Photography"; and as 
Mr. Wood is one of the clearest writers on mental 
therapeutics now before the public, we may be sure 
that he has not thoughtlessly recommended an order 
of procedure on behalf of such as may need, at present, 
some outward assistance on their way out of chronic 
errors of thought and their accompanying and re- 
sultant physical infirmities. 

In the far Orient such subjects as telepathy, or 
mental telegraphy, are by no means novelties; while 
the psychometric theories advanced by Buchanan, 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 103 

Denton and other modern writers are in no sense a 
revelation or surprise to any Asiatic, who is fairly 
acquainted with the tenets of the cult to which he is 
himself attached. It is not only believed in the East 
that an object, such as a picture or a statue, serves the 
purpose of aiding concentration; it is positively de- 
clared that the results of concentration are such, that 
the object itself made and used for a special purpose 
becomes endowed with some of the very nature of the 
spiritual subject with which the artificer and the 
suppliant desire to come en rapport. 

Though this theory may sound wild at first, the more 
it is studied the more rational does it appear; for, grant- 
ing the power of human will, united with unflagging 
expectation, all things become possible through the 
operation of the omnipresent law of attraction. 

An idol is an image constructed for the express pur- 
pose of aiding whoever gazes upon it to realize the 
idea of an actual, spiritual entity, possessing certain 
definite attributes, and gifted with describable powers. 
The act of consecration of an idol is an act of invoca- 
tion or evocation, and is connected with magical rites 



104 ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 

and ceremonies which were originally instituted to 
persuade or compel certain unseen influences to take 
charge of the image and employ it as a means of com- 
munication with all who supplicated these invisibles 
through the agency of the image. To deny magic is 
absurd, for it can be abundantly demonstrated by all 
who are brave and persistent enough to encounter the 
difficulties and triumph over the obstacles incident to. 
the path of the would-be initiate. There is, however, 
great opportunity for fraud in connection with what 
constitutes the whole of magic known to the multi- 
tude of the uninitiated, and that imposition is practiced 
upon the ignorant, who are usually overcredulous, by 
designing priesthoods, no traveller or student can 
deny. The worst impositions practiced in Asia are no 
more than many practiced in the Occident. There is 
fully as much credulity exhibited, in certain quarters, 
in various districts of America and Europe as there 
has ever been in India, but even amid the rankest and 
wildest superstitions there are grains of truth, com- 
parable to a little gold amid a vast mass of alloy. 
It is universally conceded that it is generally worth 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 105 

while to extract the little gold from the much dross 
where material treasure is concerned; so do we deem 
it profitable to endeavor to extricate the truth from 
amid the debris of widely prevailing error; therefore, 
our present attempt to elucidate somewhat many of 
the perplexing aspects of religious and anti-religious 
controversy. 

The holy coat at Treves, the fragment of bone sup- 
posed to be from the body of Saint Anne, now preserved 
in a French church in New York, and numerous other 
doubtful curiosities held in high honor by some eccle- 
siastical dignitaries, and venerated by crowds of ordi- 
nary people in different parts of Christendom, are 
exactly on a par with u heathen'' idols. They are 
neither better nor worse than such, and it will very 
soon be entirely useless for Christians of any type to 
accept one without accepting the others also. These 
supposed historic treasures may or may not be genuine 
or fraudulent from the simple historic standpoint, but 
any value they may or do possess must be accounted 
for in a psychic manner or not at all. 

Emile Zola's work on Lourdes and the celebrated 



106 ORIENTAL MODES OP WORSHIP. 

Grotto there, may be in some parts, too cynical and 
sceptical, when viewed from the standpoint of the 
latest discoveries in psychology; but taken as a whole 
it is a very fair statement of what actually takes place 
at that greatly hallowed and much frequented spot. 
Zola, sceptic though he is, admits that one in ten of 
all who apply to Mary Immaculate for help may re- 
ceive benefit, even though the legend of the apparition 
be entirely distrusted. 

There are certain elements which enter largely into 
the percentage of cures, be it large or small ; which are 
of intense interest to every student of the singular ac- 
tion of the human intellect when excited in some 
extraordinary way. It should not be forgotten that 
whenever a certain place gains a reputation as a health 
or healing resort there are many people, interested 
financially and otherwise, to assist it, not only to 
maintain but to increase its popularity, and it is quite 
impossible that concentrated desire, united with more 
or less of expectation, should fail to effect something 
of the purpose sought. Here we have at the shrine 
itself, and in direct connection with the image, a 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 107 

powerful, highly concentrated mental influence, which 
at once envelopes a sensitive on his arrival, producing 
oftentimes a singularly exhilarating effect, which, in 
its turn, awakens confidence in the mind of the suf- 
ferer, who now feels more than ever hopeful that bene- 
ficial results will reward him for his journey thither. 

The second element which leads to a result is now 
in operation; for at this point auto-suggestion is a 
powerful factor, and the patient who is seeking relief 
thereby works with all external influences who have 
the Grotto, holy well or whatever it may be, in charge, 
to facilitate the end desired. 

All that we have said thus far in this connection 
stops short of the Theosophical idea of prayer and its 
efficacy, which, in connection with faith, works 
wonders beyond description. Thebsophy, being the 
universal wisdom religion, or the essence of all 
religious systems, peers beneath the veil of each and 
furnishes an explanation of their hidden mystery. 
The gods and goddesses of the various cults are at their 
highest the genuine theoi from which the word The- 
osophy is partly derived. 



108 ORIENTAL MODES OP WORSHIP. 

The Hindu divas, or shining ones, are the guardian 
intelligences who preside over the land and keep 
watch over its inhabitants; and though all occultists 
admit the existence of the astral (more correctly 
interstellar) atmosphere, which serves as a universal 
register, or book of remembrance, the intelligent 
Theosophist does not fall into the error of teaching 
that — because a seer can read the inscriptions traced 
upon this mystic scroll by the finger of the astral 
light — therefore, there are no ways open to him for 
enjoying direct communion with individual intelli- 
gences, living on whatever plane his aspirations are 
directed toward. 

The law of mental intercommunication has never 
been more fully stated than by Swedenborg, in his 
singularly comprehensive sentence, "Thought gives 
presence; love yields conjunction;'' which truly means 
that whatever we think about, we bring into our 
mental presence through the working of thought; but 
whatever we love we are intimately conjoined to, or in- 
wardly united with, to the extent of the affection we 
bear it. 



ORIENTAL MODES OF WORSHIP. 109 

Now, it is incredible that the human mind should 
thick beyond the realities of existence, and still more 
incredible that man's thought should transcend the 
possible. The obvious inference is that the universe 
assuredly holds whatever we think about, and that by 
steadfast attention, directed anywhere, we can enter 
into relationship with the subject of our thought, and 
most intimately with the subject of our affection. 

Let the so-called idolator prostrate himself before a 
hideous or a beautiful idol on the banks of the Ganges 
— both kinds are in profusion there; no matter how 
crude may be his personification of the mental state 
or spiritual sphere with which he longs to enter into 
communion, he becomes a magnet to draw to himself 
a response from whatever plane of consciousness in 
nature is represented in his thought. Answers to 
prayers are through the ceaseless operation of un- 
changing law; and though there be no such individuals 
in existence as the fabulous characters addressed by 
the suppliant by name, there are planes of conscious- 
ness with which he enters into union, which contain 
and embody the very attributes with which he endows 



110 ORIENTAL MODES OP WORSHIP. 

the ideal or romantic character to whom he prays. 
Should any child, believing Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" 
to be solid history, undertake to say his prayers to Mr. 
Pickwick or to Sam Weller, he would thereby attract 
to himself, if he continued the practice long, in- 
fluences — no matter whether incarnate or excarnate — 
who largely resemble those fictitious personages in 
disposition; and, moreover, he would develop within 
himself, through evolution from his own soul, similar 
attributes to the end that he would finally become 
virtually one of those characters himself. 

With the Theosophic key in hand many doors can be 
unlocked with ease, which have long been barred and 
bolted. The devious paths through which the in- 
tellect travels in its search for the good it craves, be- 
come well lighted roads, whereas formerly they 
appeared blind alleys; and the great good to the rising 
generation to be accomplished through this unlocking 
and unveiling is the unlimited extension of the senti- 
ment of fraternity among all peoples. If our hopes 
are the same, though our methods slightly vary; if we 
are all actuated by the same root impulses; if our access 



ORIENTAL MODES OF "WORSHIP. Ill 

to the heavens depends far more upon disposition than 
upon creed, far more upon motive than upon method, 
then assuredly is the time coming to raze the gates, 
throw down partition walls and acknowledge as we 
never could before, our universal sisterhood and 
brotherhood. Let us not call each other idolators, 
heathens, pagans, sinners, outcasts, or apply any oppro- 
brious epithet to any. Let us rise to the elevation of 
the Golden Rule as the guide of practice. Then will 
quickly dawn the morning of peace and the night 
shadows of threatened warfare will speedily disperse. 

Religion is one but its parts are many. True religion 
is but the science of right living; so whatever helps 
to more righteous living, though it comes to us in any 
guise, may we accept it regardless of its garb, but 
never limit or attempt to limit ourselves or others to 
any special form or shibboleth, but acknowledge most 
of all whatever makes for unity, and least of all what- 
ever, if admitted to our thought, would bear the fruit 
of discord. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REI^CARltfATIOK AtfD 

KARMA. 

The Theosophica] Society, as it appears before 
the world, has only three publicly avowed objects — 
first, the establishment of the nucleus of a universal 
brotherhood regardless of color, creed or sex, (con- 
sequently this fraternity, if carried out, must be a 
sisterhood as truly as a brotherhood); second, the 
promotion of the study of the various bibles of hu- 
manity, (of x\ryan literature in particular) ; third, the 
cultivation of the psychic faculty in mankind. 

There are two doctrines which are always put to the 
front and held uppermost in the published utterances 
of accepted lights in the Society, and these are Re- 
incarnation and Karma. In the eyes of the average 
modern Theosophist, man is a very complex entity, 
composed, in his present state of expression, of seven 
distinct principles, three of which suffice to constitute 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REIKCAKNATIOtf. 113 

the real individual, the other four going to make up 
the instrument through which the spiritual-intellectual 
entity is expressed. 

The higher triad in the constitution of a human be- 
ing is composed of Atma (the essential ego, and, 
therefore, in reality the entire entity considered poten- 
tially); Buddhi, the spiritual soul, or first emanation 
from Atma, this being the seat of all that we are 
accustomed to call conscience and the moral sense; 
Manas, the intellectual soul, or human mind, the seat 
of that human reason, which is universally looked up- 
on as the distinguishing trait of humanity, whereby it 
is raised above brutality. 

The lower quaternary is composed of Kama Rupa, 
the animal soul, which is the seat of all distinctly 
animal propensities in man, and which we and the 
lower animals possess jointly; Linga Sharira, the 
astral, or psychical body, which is no doubt the 
equivalent in Buddhistic terminology of the spiritual 
body, mentioned by Paul in his letters to the Cor- 
inthians, and by Swedenborg in numerous of his 
writings; Jivatrna, the life principle which connects 



114 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 

the psychic form with its ultimate physical expression; 
Rupa, the physical body. 

As all Theosophists of every school teach that the 
universe and the individual human entity are in exact 
correspondence, a seven-fold constitution of the uni- 
verse is also insisted upon, and it is usually given as 
follows: Swayambhii, latent spirit, the source of all 
expression, the infinite, unchanging, all-containing 
principle of life; Narayana, universal intelligence, or 
the omnipresent working of this eternal life principle; 
Yajna, the universal ether upon which all the work- 
ings of intelligence are pictured; the plane of astral or 
interstellar light, and the universal book of re- 
membrance or scroll of record; Vetch, cosmic will; 
Maya, or Akasa, the foundation of physical expression; 
what Denton has called in his works on psychometry, 
u The Soul of Things;" Punish, the vivifying spirit or 
breath which vitalizes every existent form; Prahriti, 
earth or matter, which, according to esoteric teaching, 
is not a substance apart from spirit, but is in reality 
but the effect of the lowest vibrations of the universal 
cosmic substance. 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 115 

In these tables of the constitution of man and of 
the universe, there is no suggestion of evil. The 
ridiculous idea of two rival principles in the universe, 
the one good and the other bad, is totally foreign to 
Theosophic thought; and, indeed, no system of religion 
and no bible on earth really teaches it. The Parsees 
or Zoroastrians teach it not, though they are usually 
accused of teaching it by those whose reading of the 
Zend-Avesta is very shallow, if they have ever read 
that wonderful literature at all. The gnostics of early 
Christian times taught a doctrine of Demiurges, or sub- 
ordinate divinities, who created the external universe; 
but these were not evil. Only because they were less 
than infinite in knowledge they could do imperfect 
work, and through lack of perfect understanding were 
liable to invert or misplace things good in themselves. 

It is on the basis of the twin doctrines of Reincar- 
nation and Karma that Theosophy undertakes to 
account for the present actual condition of all the 
affairs of earth. Mrs. Wilmans 1 admirable course of 
twenty lessons for home study in Mental Science con- 
tains the very gist of Theosophieal teachings on the 



116 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 

subject of the relation between will and intellect, and 
we strongly advise all who have been perplexed, and 
possibly carried away with erroneous speculations 
regarding Theosophy, to give every one of these les- 
sons a most careful perusal; for in all of them will be 
found the strong, true affirmation that man holds 
within himself the master key to all desired and 
desirable attainment, and that instead of our being 
willful sinners too vile to live, the mistakes we make 
are only incident to our present lack of mental growth 
or intellectual development. 

To the Oriental intellect the doctrine of Reincarna- 
tion, or, in other words, successive embodiments or 
repeated expressions of the same ego through various 
terrestrial forms, presents no difficulties, chiefly because 
the Oriental is by nature a metaphysician, and not a 
materialist. The Hindu readily thinks of himself as 
a living spiritual entity, and regards his body as only 
a temporary expression of himself. Instead of the 
doctrine of Reincarnation being opposed to physiology 
or any of the so-called physical, natural or exact 
sciences, it is in perfect consonance with every one of 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OP REINCARNATION. 117 

them, with physiology in particular. Dead matter or 
inert substance is a myth. Science knows of no such 
thing, and the mind fails to conceive of it. 

Thomas Edison, the highly distinguished electrician, 
expressed some of his intensely interesting views on 
the constitution of the universe in the columns of the 
New York Herald a few years since. This very able 
man declared himself utterly unable to conceive of an 
atom other than conscious and intelligent. As the 
universe contains only intelligence and atoms accord- 
ing to the Edisonian theory, there cannot be any place 
in true science for the idea conveyed to the ordinary 
intellect by the words insentient and inert, for all 
things are sentient and ert in a greater or lesser degree. 
Our bodies are composed of atoms, every one of which 
is living; but our bodies are never twice alike. Even 
in the short space of one year, very, decided changes 
may have taken place in anyone's physical structure. 
In less than one year the whole form may have been 
entirely reconstructed; and yet, despite this complete 
re-embodiment or reincarnation, the individual clothed 
with a new persona remains the same. 



118 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REIKCARK ATIOST. 

It stands to reason that every one of us must be an 
absolute simple, not a compound of elements; an 
entity indissoluble; for, were it not so, the commonest 
experiences of mankind would be impossible. A 
mother bids adieu to her son, who starts out on a sea- 
faring career at the tender age of sixteen years. She 
sees him not till he is twenty-five, nine years later, by 
which time he and she have both developed entirely 
new organisms. The stripling has become the man; 
the once fair, beardless face is now both bronzed and 
bearded; the whole aspect and bearing of the young 
man differ from the boy; the voice has changed; 
opinions have altered; the mother and son are both 
other persons than they were when they last embraced, 
but their individualities are so unchanged that they 
instantly recognize and delightedly discover that they 
love and comprehend each other still. 

If it were true that re-embodiment would rob us of 
our individuality, because it implies a total change in 
our personalities, then would individuality be destroyed 
during a single earthly lifetime, just as frequently as 
the changes in the physique had been so radical as to 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 119 

result in complete molecular alteration. As the Prin- 
ciple of Life, Parabralmi, the Unconditional Absolute, 
is regarded as perfect equity by the great teachers of 
the East, it is contended by Brahmans, Buddhists and 
all other Orientals that every soul or ego, when it 
starts out upon its journey in expression, commences 
its career at the zero point of intellectual ignorance; 
therefore, the earliest embodiments of all souls are at 
the foot of the ladder of expression. The ego has 
been working for ages to evolve such bodies as men 
and women are now wearing on earth. 

The earliest expressions of the ego are made through 
the mineral kingdom. Then when all the rounds of 
universal expression have been passed through, the 
vegetable kingdom is traversed; then the animal, and 
at length the human form is developed — very near the 
ape at first, but subject to perpetual improvement till 
at length the grandest human manifestation is rendered 
possible. The ego itself never varies. This true entity 
is, however, always working, and it is the work of the 
ego, not the ego per se, which changes. 

The cry that re-embodiment implies retrogression 



120 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF KEItfCARtf ATIOtf. 

shows utter ignorance of the doctrine denounced, for 
the true interpretation of it is found in the reflection 
that work of every sort needs to be done over and over 
again until it is once perfectly performed; and who 
among us, let us ask, has yet developed a perfect form 
from the moment of conception till the hour of 
physical maturity. We must go on building body 
after body till we at length succeed in fashioning a 
perfect structure, whose anatomy and physiology will 
be flawless. When any of us have succeeded in con- 
structing such a shape, we shall have conquered death 
and attained to a height where we shall be able to 
build and dissolve and rebuild a form at will. 

What is to-day very crudely presented to the public 
gaze under the name of spirit materialization, is an 
attempt to illustrate the truth of man's ultimate 
dominion over the elements, so that the integration, 
disintegration and reintegration of bodies will be a 
task easily within the reach of the graduated hiero- 
phant. At the present instant we are every one of us 
reaping exactly what we have sown, regardless of 
whether we can, at present, recollect or not the time, 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 121 

place and conditions when and where we sowed the 
seeds of the fruits or weeds we are now gathering. 

The doctrine of Karma concerns the unvarying 
operation of the changeless law of sequence, which is 
unquestionably omnipresent in the universe. All 
great teachers have emphasized this, and nowhere in 
the Oriental Scriptures do we find the Karmic law 
more plainly stated than in many of the best known 
and most frequently quoted passages of the New Testa- 
ment. What can possibly be stronger than the saying, 
u Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap"? 
In these words we have no intimation of a doctrine of 
vicarious atonement or substitutionary sacrifice; for 
that dogma was an invention of a later period, and had 
no place whatever in the teachings of Jesus or any of 
his early followers. Again, what assertion could be 
plainer than the vividly truthful declaration, "You 
cannot gather grapes from thorns or figs from 
thistles"? And, indeed, those exceptionally trans- 
cendental statements concerning prayer and its efficacy, 
which blinded materialists blatantly deny, are the very 
fullest and most positive enunciations of the Karmic 



122 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF KEINCAKNATION. 

or sequential law, which is undeviating in its operation. 
"Whatsoever you ask in prayer — believing — you shall 
receive," is a highly condensed compendium of the 
whole system of Mental Science, though exception 
may perhaps be taken to the single word "believing," 
but then only on etymological grounds. 

Too many modern Theosophists have been seriously 
led astray by false views of Karma, which, though 
vigorously promulgated by professed leaders of The- 
osophical thought in the present generation, receive 
no countenance from the original Asiatic .documents, 
whence the application is said to have been taken. 
The opposition to Mental Science manifested by 
prominent writers io avowedly Theosophic literature 
has been, from its beginning, a pitiable exhibition of 
narrow-minded ignorance; while the parrot cry, "It is 
not right to interfere with Karma," is too ridiculous 
in the light of sound philosophy to merit serious 
attention, even for an instant. Let it once for all be 
stated that Karma cannot be interfered with. The 
changeless relation between cause and effect can be 
tampered with by no one; and this the Oriental bibles 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 123 

teach, with a wealth of illustration so redundant as to 
render misconception impossible. 

The doctrine of Karma does not allow the forgiveness 
of sins, in the sense in which that phrase is used by 
the majority of those who confound it with remission 
of penalty, which is something entirely different. 
u Thou art released from thy sins" is the New Testa- 
ment equivalent for u thy sins are forgiven thee;" and 
this declaration clearly means that when error has 
been evicted from the tenement it formerly occupied in 
the intellectual state of a sufferer, suffering ceases, 
because the effect (suffering) cannot continue after 
the cause (error) has been cast out. 

It is said of the great teaciier, Gautama, the most 
recent appearance of the Buddha type in Asia, that 
his first inquiry when he set out upon his philanthropic 
mission was, u What causes sorrow?" His second 
query was, "How shall sorrow cease?" He discovered 
that sorrow proceeds from ignorance, and that all the 
woes known on earth are the collective outcome of 
false judgments. He then, later on in his career, dis- 
covered the antidote to misery in all shapes, but found 



124 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 

it only in knowledge and application of knowledge. 
As Buddha means a knowing one, esoteric Buddhism 
signifies the philosophy of interior knowledge; that is, 
knowledge of causation, and, therefore, prophetic in- 
sight or seership, whereby one is enabled to produce 
luxuriant crops of figs and grapes by knowing how to 
grow them and putting this knowledge to practical 
account. 

There are passages in the gospel narratives bearing 
on this subject which may be a little obscure, but 
these are not very hard to comprehend if we look a 
little deeply into them. One of the most impressive 
narrations of healing by Jesus is that of the young 
man born blind, who received sight for the first time 
in his experience through following a direction given 
to him by the great healer. Disciples attributed every 
infirmity to sin in the vain belief that some definite 
wrong must have been committed by the individual 
sufferer or by his parents. That these disciples knew of, 
and accepted the theory of successive incarnations, is 
plain, or they could not have asked the question con- 
cerning a child blind from birth. "Who did sin — this 



THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION. 125 

man or his parents, that lie was born blind ?" The 
question was natural and commonplace, but the 
answer given to it is exceptional, "Neither this man or 
his parents." 

We can only gather that the speaker of these words 
repudiated the prevailing fallacy, which was both un- 
kind and unjust, that every one who is born with some 
deficiency in expression is either a reincarnated soul 
doing penance for some sin committed in a past life, 
or is the child of guilty parents. The continuing 
words, u The works of God are not yet, but are to be 
made manifest in him" — and that is the full and cor- 
rect rendering of the passage — introduce an evolu- 
tionary note into the scale, and suggest immediately 
the idea of progress through education. Mistakes are 
not sins. Blunders do not constitute guilt, and be- 
cause in the past we may have failed to build perfect 
organisms, does not prove that we are to sit down in 
the present and submit to something we idly call fate. 
If we are here on earth to-day to overcome past errors, 
and build wiser for the future than we builded in the 
past, then no theory can be more mischievous than 



126 THEOSOPHICAL IDEA OF REIKCARSTATIOK. 

that which encourages the thought of Karma being a 
sort of dreadful Nemesis, while we are as much in its 
power as though we were galley slaves, chained to an 
oar by the cruel decree of a warlike conqueror. 

The reputed Theosophist who talks of "bad Karma" 
created in a past existence, and who says that suffering 
to-day is in payment for past sins, does what is the 
very height of folly when he knuckles under to ad- 
versity and takes to his bed, sends for a physician and 
submits to an abominable course of drug medication, 
all the while prating about letting Karma exhaust 
itself without interference. The prostrate mental 
attitude, thus assumed, and the blind submission to an 
erroneous course of treatment, is the manufacturing 
machine out of which a new supply of additional "bad 
Karma" can be quickly turned. 

It is quite reasonable to affirm that we are, at the 
present moment, hampered by all the results of our 
previous mistakes that we have not overcome; but it is in 
the power of every one of us to meet and vanquish past 
errors and their consequences by present affirmation 
of mental supremacy over all terrestrial limitations. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE SEVEN-POLD IDEA OF MAN. 

So much has been said since modern Theosophy has 
become a popular subject concerning the sevenfold 
constitution of man that no treatise upon Theosophy, 
as the word is now generally used, would be in any 
sense complete without a special chapter upon this 
doctrine. Mr. Sinnett, the well known author of 
"Esoteric Buddhism, 1 ' was about the first writer to 
popularize this dogma. Mrs. Annie Besant has been 
up to date (Jane, 1896,) the latest writer whose 
views upon the subject have excited much attention, 
and her comments have been chiefly expository of 
views already familiar to all students of the literature 
circulated by the Theosophical Society. The per- 
sonality of Mrs. Besant is so interesting by reason of 
her long and striking public career as a lecturer and 
writer on all free thought subjects, that any effusion 



128 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN". 

from her facile pen is apt to draw more attention to 
itself than though the same ideas were put forward 
by a less celebrated individual. Mrs. Besant's com- 
paratively small and inexpensive treatise on u The 
Septenary Constitution of Man" we, therefore, recom- 
mend to all those of our readers who wish to enter 
more fully into the intricacies of this extraordinary view 
of human nature than we can possibly attempt to do 
in the very restricted space at our present disposal. 

In a previous essay in this series we have alluded to 
the Oriental id v ea of the seven-fold constitution of the 
universe, much fuller information concerning which 
can be obtained by all who peruse u The Mystery of 
the Ages," by the lamented Duchess de Pomar, whose 
book bearing the above title is by far the most com- 
pendious and comprehensive summary of the tenets of 
universal Theosophy we have yet encountered. Such 
cases as that of Mollie Fancher of Brooklyn, to which 
Judge Daly of the same city has devoted so much 
earnest attention, cannot fail to raise far more ques- 
tions in the minds of students than the wisest among 
us know how to answer. 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 129 

The Psychical Research Society o£ Great Britain, 
composed, as we know it to be, largely of men and 
women of ripe culture and far more than average in- 
telligence, is still wrestling with such problems as 
dual consciousness, multiple personality and many 
others which Thomson Jay Hudson in his u Law of 
Psychic Phenomena,' 1 and other recent writers upon 
metaphysical themes, endeavor to solve in a manner 
often more ingenious than convincing when it comes 
to the final application of the theory and astounding 
phenomena. Iam J, is an excellent generalization, but 
what am I? is a question not always easy to explain. 

The doctrine of man's seven-fold nature claims to 
reach the public not alone from the recesses of Budd- 
histic scholarship, but as a direct revelation from those 
mysterious adepts who are mentioned with bated 
breath as masters cloistered in Thibet or inhabiting 
the well nigh inaccessible fastnesses of the Himalayan 
region. Dismissing without reserve all that may be 
fabulous or romantic with reference to the alleged 
origin of the doctrine and the secret sources whence it 
has flowed through the agency of specially appointed 



130 THE SEYEN-FOLD IDEA OF MA^N". 

messengers from the Orient to the Occident, let us 
first state the doctrine itself as clearly as possible, and 
then proceed to examine its reasonableness, and, if 
possible, decide how far it does or does not conform to 
the facts of our own experience. Every system of 
anthropology, from the most ancient to the most re- 
cent, postulates an ego; and this ego is assuredly in 
the fullest sense the individual. Sanskrit literature 
denominates the ego Atma, and claims that this entity 
is the divine of man, incorruptible and imperishable. 
We have, therefore, at the outset a distinctly unitary 
conception of man, which well suffices as a starting 
point. Unity precedes and includes diversity, as the 
greater invariably contains the lesser. The number 
one is, therefore, the original sacred number in all 
systems where numerals are regarded as expressions of 
spiritual values. But one must manifest itself as two, 
or there can be no expression and no reproduction; 
therefore, as the earliest forms of existence capable 
of multiplying their species are found to be dual 
or biune in constitution, the number two is also 
venerated and stands for fatherhood and motherhood, 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 131 

without which there can be no thought of offspring. 
The old sex or Phallic worship, which first intro- 
duced the symbol of the cross to the world, was 
naturally and originally a simple deification of the 
generative principle in the universe; and as all 
historians and archaeologists know well, the early 
Egyptians and all other ancient peoples worshiped 
the male and female principles equally, as instanced 
by the homage paid in Egypt to Osiris and Isis and 
the child Horus, who is represented both as son and 
daughter of the dual deity. 

No sooner does a child appear upon the scene, as the 
result of the union of masculine and feminine princi- 
ples, than the number three is exalted as a sacred 
numeral. Thus is introduced the triangle in addition 
to the circle and the cross. But the original trinal con- 
ception of divinity is not that of modern trinitarian- 
ism, with its absurd attempt to foist upon humanity 
three male personages as constituting deity. The 
primitive idea was at least natural, for it recognized 
the three in one as father, mother and child, a con- 
ception which is now happily displacing the exclu- 



182 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN*. 

sively male divinity which has so long eclipsed, rather 
than enlightened, the thought of humanity. 

After three comes four, the sacredness of which as 
an emblematic numeral is directly associated with the 
four cardinal points of the compass; and as the square 
has been for ages the symbol of equity, we find the 
great Egyptian pyramid — unquestionably the most im- 
posing monument of antiquity yet discovered — built 
on the perfect square. 

Following upon the square comes five, which has, 
from the earliest times of which history makes any 
mention, been inseparably connected with universal 
brotherhood. As there are five fingers on the human 
hand and five toes on the foot, so are there five great 
races of humanity which are distinct but not separate 
the one from the others, just as the five fingers or toes 
upon a single hand or foot are quite distinct but are 
radically inseparable, as they are all parts of one im- 
portant member, all grow out of the same palm or 
sole, and if one be cut off from the others it perishes 
and the member which has lost it has become maimed 
and impoverished. 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 133 

The number six, always artistically represented in the 
mysteries by the interlaced triangle, seems to typify 
the perfect house which the unseen tenant occupies. 
It stands for the perfect lodge, the completed struct- 
ure; but if this be tenantless of what use is it? 

In that mysterious book of Revelations, which so 
few Bible students even attempt to explain, and which 
is surely a Masonic Apocalypse, the false prophet's 
number is 666. This is given as the number of what- 
ever fails to arrive at perfection, while all sacred things 
are spoken of as seven-fold. 

The number seven is exhibited Kabalistically as the 
double triangle presented as the shrine of the All-See- 
ing Eye, which is invariably intended to represent deity 
in the universe and the immortal soul, the self-con- 
scious ego in man. The interest attaching to the num- 
ber seven is thoroughly scientific; for have we not dis- 
covered seven prismatic hues, all resolvable into the 
perfect ray of white light which embraces all? Is not 
our musical scale composed of seven notes, and though 
we may play and sing in many octaves, the seven-fold 
scale, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, is never lost sight of? 



134 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 

When, therefore, the writers of the Norse Eddas, the 
bible of the ancient Scandinavian peoples, declared 
that the soul of the warrior departed from earth must 
pass over the rainbow bridge on its way to Valhalla, 
the Norseman's paradise, the home of Odin, the prin- 
cipal divinity in Norse mythology, these sturdy heroes 
of an inhospitable clime, in whose stern eyes valor was 
the highest virtue, did far more "than give way to 
poetic rhapsody; they embodied in their mythical teach- 
ings scientific verities which had no doubt descended 
to them from ages lost in the night of forgetfulness, 
when intercourse between different parts of this planet 
was accomplished without difficulty, before important 
geological changes cut off one territory of the globe 
entirely from all others. 

Now that a study of occultism is u all the rage" in 
many highly respectable quarters, we shall ere long 
be looking at the so-called u idle superstitions" of our 
forefathers as veils thrown over esoteric meaning, 
which it is the province of genuine science to reveal. 

The seven-fold constitution of man as explained, or 
at least stated, by a majority of present-day Theoso- 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 135 

phists, may be given as follows, if we enumerate the 
principles according to the Involutionary Order: 

1 — Atma or Essential Ego. 

2 — Spiritual Soul. 

3 — Intellectual or Rational Soul. 

4 — Animal Soul. 

5 — Astral or Psychical Body. 

6 — Vitalizing Force. 

7 — Physical Organism. 

The above classification is taken from the teachings of 
those schools of Theosophy which turn specially to India 
for guidance and illumination. There are, however, 
other schools of Theosophy, and from the teachings 
of one of the Hermetic branches we cull the following 
somewhat differing tabulation, though the seven-fold 
idea is equally prominent. In this category the seven 
divisions again counting from within outward are: 

1— The Divine Ego. 

2 — Spiritual Soul. 

3 — Spiritual Body. 

4 — Animal Soul. 

5 — Astral or Psychic Form. 

6 — Electro-vital Body. 

7 — Physical Form. 



136 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 

Some Kabalistic writers upon the seven kingdoms 
within man, as well as within the universe — man be- 
ing the microcosm, the universe the macrocosm — 
differentiate as follows: 

1 — The creative realm. 

2 — The realm of design. 

3 — Realm of force. 

4 — Phenomenal realm. 

5 — Vital realm. 

6 — Conscious realm. 

7 — Mental realm or state of final expression. 

The seven great Kabalistic words associated with 
these seven regions are: First, The Word; second, 
The Idea; third, Power; fourth, Justice: fifth, Beauty; 
sixth, Love; seventh, Glory. 

These again are respectively designated as, first, 
Spiritual ; second, Astral ; third, Aerial ; fourth, Mineral ; 
fifth, Vegetable; sixth, Animal; seventh, Human. 

It must always be remembered by those who wish 
to understand with any degree of clearness these 
Kabalistic definitions, that Kabalism knows nothing 
of a line reaching out straight forward, but invariably 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 137 

deals with the theory of a spiral and with circular 
motion. Thus the seven principles within the circle 
range from the essential nucleolic starting point, 
which is the true ego, wind through the lower stages 
of evolutionary expression and terminate in the fullest 
manifestation of involved glory. The suggestive 
circle of the Hermetists, formed of a serpent (the 
emblem of wisdom) with its tail in its mouth, en- 
circled with the motto, "In my end is my beginning," 
throws much light on the mysterious, but certainly 
not irrational idea presented in the foregoing summary. 

To the thoughtful student of Mental Science all 
such Oriential mysticisms may perhaps appear un- 
necessary, and they are, indeed, totally needless when 
we have once apprehended the truth that the essential 
ego is the seat of all power; but to the average student 
of Theosophy, or of any form or phase of occultism, 
classifications seem helpful, as they suggest intelligible 
relations between the various planes of our certainly 
complex though unitary nature. 

In the case of Miss Fancher there are only two com- 
prehensible explanations of the weird phenomena 



138 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 

which have astounded the medical faculty for many 
years. The one is the simply Spiritualistic interpreta- 
tion, that she is a remarkable medium and has different 
controls who personate themselves in turn through 
her organism. The other is that the various planes 
of consciousness in her own nature function diversely, 
so much so that when one is to the front the others 
are completely in the background. Our own convic- 
tion, based on some experience, is that both theories 
are partly true; but there is a wider explanation possi- 
ble than is usually attempted, and to this explanation 
of all similar phenomena we now call attention in con- 
nection with our mention of the seven distinct divisions 
of human nature as now ultimated. The higher planes 
have properly ascendency over the lower; and though 
all are good the higher only are adapted to rule and 
the lower to serve. Directly the higher assert them- 
selves, the lower, which were formerly the highest 
acknowledged or evolved, are forced into submission 
and a conflict ensues within the individual. As we 
are all of us related mentally or physically in ways 
we know not of, or, at least, in ways but very imper- 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 139 

fectly comprehended, we are continually brought into 
relation with other influences, whose development cor- 
responds exactly with the plane of development we 
are growing out of, and also with the higher plane we 
are growing into; and until we are really confirmed on 
the higher plane, we are subject to a struggle between 
the outgoing and incoming ascendencies of our na- 
ture. Whenever a person is met with who is unusu- 
ally sensitive to everything, such a one serves as a 
vivid illustration of universal experience, and in the 
light of these extraordinary cases we can read the out- 
working of a universal law, the operations of which 
are not so manifest in ordinary as in extraordinary 
cases. A great number of people, indeed, the majority 
of the present inhabitants of the earth, even in civil- 
ized countries, are only conscious of their fourth and 
fifth principles; therefore, they either reject all evi- 
dence pertaining to the realm of spirit, or they accept it 
at second hand, as though in some unaccountable way 
a privileged class possessed information concerning 
spiritual things, inaccessible to the multitude, and 
were commissioned to dole it out to the masses either 



140 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAX. 

gratuitously or for a monetary consideration. When, 
however, the sixth principle (counting upward or in- 
ward) begins to assert it-self, then the base of accep- 
tance is changed and the individual, no longer believ- 
ing himself dependent upon others for second-hand 
illumination, becomes conscious of a power and in- 
sight entirely his own, by means of which he can ap- 
prehend the realm of spirit without further recourse 
to a mediator. 

The recent split in the Theosophical Society is 
both interesting and instructive, for there are now at 
least three distinct parties all claiming to be in the 
right. One party cleaves to Mrs. Besant, the other 
to Mr. Judge — of the two which depend on authority. 
The third party neither swear by one or the other, but 
consider themselves capable of thinking and acting on 
their own responsibility. 

Those in whom the spiritual soul (Buddhi, the 
illuminated and the illuminator) is beginning to un- 
fold are constrained to throw off all shackles of ma- 
terial authority as they begin to perceive what is the 
true attitude of the genuine Theosophist— not that 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAX. 141 

of a follower or copyist, but that of an original 
thinker and first-hand discoverer of truth. 

H. P. Blavatsky was, indeed, a wonderful woman 
whose intellectual ability was gigantic. She was 
not an impostor, but she played with her devo- 
tees and hypnotized her satellites, sometimes quite 
unintentionally; for when people fall prostrate at 
another's feet and submit to everything they suppose 
to be her wish, she unknowingly commands them 
and influences their conduct, even when she has no 
intention of submitting them to the spell of her 
psychology. As Moncure D. Conway and other bright 
intellects have decided, glamour has a great deal to do 
with the sensations experienced by those who bow at 
the shrine of any teacher. Dr. Heinrich Hensoldt, a 
well-known contributor to the Arena, is a conspicuous 
instance of a man so entirely psychologized by an 
Indian hypnotist, that he seriously advances a meta- 
physical theory in all soberness, which proves on its 
surface that he who advocates it is relating his own 
hypnotic experiences. Students of the occult realm 
soon come to know that in what on the upward scale 



142 THE SEYE^-FOLD IDEA OF MAN". 

is the sixth, and on the downward, the second plane, 
hypnotic influences cannot hold sway; but on the 
fourth and fifth counting upward, and the third and 
fourth counting downward, viz., the planes of intellec- 
tuality and animality, hypnotic influence can be ex- 
erted tc an almost unlimited extent when conditions 
are favorable; and the wonder is not to find a person 
who is, but to discover one who is not hypnotized in 
some degree and in some direction. 

The plane of spiritual perception is that whereon 
clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychometry and all that 
can be called the means of intromission to the spiritual 
state are rightfully and continuously exercised. This 
is really the super-psychic plane, or, rather, the state 
above what is commonly designated the plane of 
mediumship; and though the adepts are they who 
have attained to consciousness of the first or seventh, 
viz., the Atmic, the chela or novitiate who is conscious 
of the Buddhic is comparatively a gnostic or knowing 
one, and cannot be deceived any longer by the illu- 
sions of the astral. 

To really heal (not merely cure) the sick it is essen- 



THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN. 143 

tial that an appeal be successfully made from and to 
the spiritual soul; i. the healer must he a sixth 
principle individual whose vibrations reach out to the 
sixth principle of the one he is seeking to benefit; 
and of this we may be well assured, that no one can 
teach another what he does not know himself, nor 
can he awaken in another that which is not first 
awakened within him. The ordinary so-called Theoso- 
phist of to-day repudiates or discountenances spiritual 
healing, because he is not awakened to a realization of 
the sixth plane of human consciousness. He therefore 
knows not how to discriminate between metaphysical 
healing and the lowest phases of hypnotism. Du 
Maurier has pictured "Trilby" as the victim of 
"SvengaliV hypnotic art, but "Trilby" is not a model 
woman by any means. She is, to say the least, far 
too negative, while "Svengali" is a most inartistic 
compound of musical genius, uncleanliness and du- 
plicity. "Svengali" shows forth the sixth plane when 
he is discoursing soul-entrancing music, and had he 
been represented by the author as a good, clean man 
in all respects, a most instructive and truthful story. 



144 THE SEVEN-FOLD IDEA OF MAN". 

ending beautifully, might have easily been written 
around him as the central figure, with the docile 
Parisian laundress as his pupil; but Du Maurier failed 
to catch the true idea of thought transference. There- 
fore, his pathetic tale is marred and incongruous. 

Whenever the spiritual soul, the seat of genius, 
works through the intellectual soul, the seat of talent, 
and ultimates its expression through the lower quater- 
nary, the outward expression of the individual is one 
of perfect health, harmony, order and general satis- 
faction. 



CHAPTER X. 



theosophica'l literature. 
As the modern Theosophical movement is nothing 
if not ambitious on the line of propagandism, a most 
voluminous and truly remarkable literature has been 
steadily growing up within the past twenty years, 
proving that popular interest in all that pertains to 
the general and to the particular of Theosophy sells 
when placed upon the market in anything like an 
attractive guise. In 1876 (but not under the auspices 
of any society) Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, an 
English lady of great oratorical and literary ability, 
one who has spent much time and rendered much 
active service in America, published under certain 
restrictions a limited number of copies of a singular 
and fascinating work called "Art Magic." This 
recondite treatise dealt with thb theory and practice 
of all those curious and oftentimes uncanny practices 

145 



146 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

which characterize the fakirs and dervishes of the 
East, as well as with much that is truly sublime in 
the philosophical concepts of Orientals. This peculiar 
book was soon followed by "Ghost Land." another 
work by the same author whose writings Airs. Britten 
was authorized to edit and translate. As the author, 
who was styled Le Chevailier de B.. remained virtually 
anonymous, much speculation took place as to his 
real personality; but no matter how various may have 
been the opinions entertained concerning his probable 
identity, those two wonderful books — the latter of 
which is a thrilling, romantic auto-biography, as well 
as a treatise upon occultism — created a keen and 
almost voracious appetite on both sides of the Atlantic 
for more and more information concerning the mys- 
teries of that avowedly occult realm, into which many 
a profound truth seeker, as well as many an idle 
curiosity hunter, is always ready to peer. 

In 1877 Helena Petrovna Blavatsky brought out in 
two immense volumes her first great contribution to 
literature, u Isis Unveiled." This extraordinary com- 
pilation and compendium of all sorts of singular 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 147 

philosophies, histories, etc., produced more than 8 
passing sensation, despite its size and price, which 
were decidedly against an extensive circulation. The 
books were bulky in the extreme and very expensive. 
Nevertheless they sold well and brought their author 
into singular notoriety, 

Mrs. Britten and Mme. Blavatsky were in some 
sense associated in 1875, when the Theosophical 
Society was formed in the city of New York; and at 
that time both ladies were enthusiastic Spiritualists. 
Mrs. Britten has never wavered in her allegiance to 
the cause of Spiritualism; therefore, she and Mme. 
Blavatsky soon parted company, and only as repre- 
sentatives of contrasting schools of philosophy were 
their names mentioned together thenceforward. 

u Isis Unveiled" has been severely criticised, but that 
is nothing to its discredit, as after the manner of 
censors generally those who have undertaken to pick 
the work to pieces have displayed so much ignorance 
as well as animosity in many instances that their 
condemnation has had little weight with thoughtful 
people. The book, however, does not even claim to 



148 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

be a literary master-piece. It is rather a collection of 
literary shreds and patches, deftly woven together in 
places, and in other instances left in an utterly dis- 
jointed condition — than a finished literary mosaic. 
These two bulky volumes are not altogether pervaded 
with a spirit of gentleness and love, though there are 
many displays of hearty good feeling toward all sorts 
of people and institutions through the course of over 
fifteen hundred large closely printed pages. 

Though the Theosophical Society as a society 
emphatically repudiates any special theological pro- 
clivities or aversions, and took for its original motto, 
"There is no religion higher than Truth, ^ Mme. 
Blavatsky, as a woman, often displayed biting ani- 
mosity toward institutionalized Christianity; though 
we are not aware that she ever took exception to what 
a liberal minded student of the New Testament might 
be justified in styling essential Christian ethics. 

It must not be supposed that because H. P. Blavat- 
sky has been so closely identified with Theosophy that 
her name in all places is inseparable from it, or that 
her distinctively Aryan type of Theosophy was the 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 149 

only variety presented in literary form to English and 
American readers. 

Dr. Anna Kingsford (of the faculty of Paris) and 
her devoted collaborator, Edward Maitland (once a 
clergyman of the Church of England) issued a work 
from what they called the Hermetic standpoint, "The 
Perfect Way or Finding of Christ, " a few years after 
the publication of "Isis Unveiled. " This smaller, 
conciser and more consecutive work has been very 
extensively accepted by those who like a more Christian 
tone and flavor than prevails through Blavatsky's 
writings, and who are also charmed with great 
purity of diction and refinement in expression. Dr. 
Kingsford presented a singular contrast to Mme. 
Blavatsky, and because of the extreme difference 
between the two women they seem never to have 
interfered with, or in any way interrupted each other's 
work, though their schools were quite distinct. Dr. 
Kingsford was a mystic, a visionary woman, who 
went into trances and experienced ecstasy and illumina- 
tions. She was of extremely sensitive temperament, 
and felt keenly the woes of animals who were nial- 



150 THEOSOPHICAL LITER A TUBE. 

treated at the hands of man. As an opponent of 
vivisection she was one of the strongest antagonists 
of that inhuman practice which the medical inquisitors 
of this century have had to encounter. A strict 
abstainer from fish, flesh and fowl, she lived as well 
as taught a system of vegetarianism which she and 
her admirers call a perfect way in diet. The Egyptian 
or Hermetic Schools of Theosophy find voice in the 
writings of this singularly gifted seeress, while the 
Hindu or Aryan Theosophy is closely adhered to by 
the followers of the much sterner and brusquer 
Blavatsky. 

It seems inevitable that the individuality, if not the 
personality of an author, should impress itself upon 
all she writes, no matter how general may be the 
themes treated; and as one type of individuality charms 
one class of readers, while it not only fails to attract, 
but even positively repels another class, it is impossible 
to decide exactly how far the distinctive tenets of the 
two schools and how far the individuality of their 
respective representatives have influenced the verdicts 
pronounced by the public mouth concerning these two 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 151 

distinct though not essentially contradictory systems 
of Theosophy. Both of them are wanting in some 
important elements, and neither are very readily com- 
prehended by the uninitiated reader. At the same 
time each has its distinctive excellencies, and it is 
quite needless to reject the good in one to accept the 
no greater good in the other; and as to the supposed 
infallibility of either, it soon breaks under the strain 
of dispassionate examination. 

To the Bible student who wishes to become familiar 
with the esoteric or interior meaning conveyed through 
its wondrous allegories, "The Perfect Way" will prove 
a mine of interesting and suggestive information. 
The Mental Scientist can derive much profit from 
many of its pages, as its doctrine of regeneration and 
its teachings on other vital points of spiritual or 
transcendental philosophy are all compatible with the 
prof oundest views entertained by the most vigorous 
and lucid exponents of the present metaphysical 
movement, though the language employed by Dr. 
Kingsford and Mr. Maitland is somewhat technical 
and occasionally ecclesiastical. 



152 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

The distinction between anima divina, or the higher 
self, and anima bruta % or the lower self of man, well 
repays close and thoughtful attention. The deduction 
which the language really warrants seems to be that 
though there are two of us instead of only one, the 
lower is not properly evil, but simply subordinate; 
therefore, the higher self is rightfully the master over 
the lower, which has a will of its own and many very 
troublesome tendencies, provided they are not 
thoroughly disciplined and rendered instrumental by 
the higher in carrying out the latter's intelligent and 
benevolent purposes. 

The ever recurring controversies on freedom and 
destiny and on the two wills, each struggling for 
ascendancy in every human being, receive a good deal 
of attention in "The Perfect Way;" and though some 
of the theories of the soul therein presented strike us 
as rather mediaeval and somewhat pessimistic, they are 
greatly superior to the views advanced by most schools 
of theologians. 

All through the eighties Theosophical works kept 
springing before the public in the form of essays, 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 153 

treatises, novels, etc. Among the most popular of 
the authors who made some aspects of Theosophy 
must certainly be mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett 
and Dr. Franz Hartmann, who, with Col. Olcott (Mme. 
Blavatsky's right-hand man and most devoted coad- 
jutor) continued to put forth work after work, calcu- 
lated, as they supposed, to answer some special need 
of the enquiring public. u Esoteric Buddhism" by 
Mr. Sinnett has excited more attention than almost 
any other single work of its kind. It is certainly not 
light literature in any sense of the word, though in 
the estimation of many who delight in the extremely 
unusual in the line of philosophy it is by no means 
heavy. The amount of information of an extraordi- 
nary character condensed into that one small volume 
is truly bewildering, and it is from its pages that the' 
general public first derived its more or less hazy no- 
tion of the seven-fold constitution of man, the plane- 
tary chain, manvantaras, Kama loca, clevachan, etc. 

Mr. Sinnett was by no means satisfied with present- 
ing Theosophy to the world in a series of scholarly 
essays redolent of Sanskrit lore. He soon after pro- 



154 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

duced two novels, "Karma" and "United, 11 neither of 
them out of the common except by reason of the very 
decided motive which they never attempted to conceal. 
This motive — it goes without saying — was to simplify 
and, therefore, popularize the tenets of "Esoteric 
Buddhism." The first of these, "Karma," is unsatis- 
factory as a propagandist work, chiefly because — 
though it relates marvelous incidents and connects 
them indirectly with Mahatmas — it fails to point out 
how any real good can be accomplished through their 
agency. The book is transparently honest and was 
clearly written in such excellent good faith, that the 
author leaves an impression less favorable to his 
particular cult than he would have done had he been 
a little more wily in working out the plot of his 
story. "United," though a well written book, is almost 
insipid and has enjoyed but a limited circulation. 

Mrs. Sinnett's little book, "The Purpose of The- 
osophy," reflects great credit on the learning and 
literary talent of the gifted lady, who managed to 
condense volumes into chapters. The busy man or 
woman who has neither time nor inclination for 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 155 

massive tomes will find in this brochure a portable 
vade mecum, easily digested and intensely thought- 
provoking. 

Dr. Hartmann's works are philosophic in the ex- 
treme. His "White and Black Magic' 1 is well worth 
any one's perusal, and his sumptuous work on u The 
Rosicrucians" is certainly an unique addition to mod- 
ern literature. In his ''Talking Image of Urur" Dr. 
Hartmann has let fly the weapon of satire pretty 
freely; and though he is quite justified in attacking all 
he has denounced, that almost brilliant novel made 
many of its interested readers wonder whether the 
screen was not being lifted a little unwisely, as the 
skeleton of Adyar was hardly disguised sufficiently. 
The most extraordinary instance of shrewd editorial 
policy ever manifested by any one connected with 
Theosophy was displayed by Mme. Blavatsky, who 
edited a monthly magazine entitled Lucifer, in the 
publication of that ironical romance as a serial in the 
pages of the chief English exponent of the very cult, 
the errors and follies of which many people thought 
Dr. Hartmann was mercilessly exposing. Lucifer was 



156 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

always spicy as well as fearless, and though it often 
printed articles entirely beyond the comprehension of 
ordinary intellects, it invariably gave enough generally 
interesting matter in its every issue to win for it con- 
siderable popular attention. 

Mme. Blavatsky's tilt with the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the Primate of the established Church 
of England, brought her and her works into a 
prominence they would otherwise probably not have 
achieved; for though many pious church people looked 
upon her as clearly an emissary of satan, England 
to-day is by no means filled with men and women of 
the old regime, who regarded what passes for Christian 
orthodoxy in conservative circles as an infallibly 
divine system of revelation. Through the pages of 
Lucifer, published in London, and the Theosoplust, 
published also monthly in India, the Theosophical 
Society for many years succeeded in keeping the pe- 
culiar tenets it so persistently advocated prominently 
before the literary world; for though the crowd of 
library frequenters, novel and newspaper readers 
everywhere are not ; as a whole, attracted to Theosophy 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 157 

as Blavatsky and her disciples presented it, there were 
always a considerable number of persons in every com- 
munity laying any claim to culture and progressive 
ideas, very ready to peruse the pages of books and 
periodicals, no matter how abstruse and well nigh in- 
comprehensible many of the pages might be, if they 
were promised, even vaguely, that by dint of diligent 
study of such literature they might at length become 
endowed with a tithe of the miraculous power credited 
to Mnie, Blavatsky and the favored few who con- 
stituted her inner circle or bodyguard. 

Theosophical head-quarters suggested to the average 
reader a very mysterious and awesome place where 
magic reigned supreme; but actually the residence of 
Mme. Blavatsky and her household of faith in London 
was commonplace and business-like in the extreme, at 
least so far as it met the outward eye. There was a 
striking absence of privacy in the abode of the won- 
derful woman, who year by year unwearyingly covered 
reams upon reams of paper with the amazing products 
of her singular intelligence. When it was whispered 
that she was writing under Mahatmic influence, and 



158 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

strange reports of her telepathic and other intercourse 
with masters in Thibet reached the public ear, the ap- 
proaching publication of her latest and most gigantic 
work, u The Secret Doctrine," was hailed as quite an 
event by the critics, reviewers, paragraphists and all 
the rank and file of magazinedom and newspaperdom 
in and out of the British metropolis. 

"The Secret Doctrine" appeared about ten years 
later than "Isis Unveiled," also in two bulky volumes, 
and at a still higher price; for this new work retailed 
at £2. 2s., or $10.00, while "Isis Unveiled" sold for 
£l. 10s. in England and $7.50 in America. Notwith- 
standing the size and price of the two heavy books 
(heavy in every sense of the word, extremely so) they 
sold freely and are selling still. The patience required 
to read through two such massive volumes must be co- 
lossal, for they are by no means on a par or anything 
approaching a level with the bulk of even professedly 
Theosophical literature. Cosmology and cosmogony 
are never simple subjects with which to deal, and when 
one is brought face to face with a system — or rather a 
combination of systems — embodying the knowledge 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 159 

and speculation of the archaic Orient, couched in 
Sanskrit phrase almost as frequently as in the ver- 
nacular of the Anglo Saxon race, the task of decipher- 
ing the philosophy concealed as much as revealed in 
this voluminous writing is, to say the least, not easy. 
There are four volumes of this stupendous work, which 
constitutes by itself a massive literature; but for the 
lack of funds to publish two more such enormous 
volumes, or else because the contents of the two 
already before the world are not yet sufficiently 
digested, the publication of these is still delayed. 

The average reader who desires to become acquainted 
with Blavatskian Theosophy reads u The Key to The- 
osophy" before attempting to decipher the "Secret 
Doctrine." "The Key' 1 is in the form of a catechism. 
The questions are presented as though propounded by 
a student, and the answers are given ex officio as by 
one who knows whereof she speaks. In a few pages 
of this comparatively simple book a great deal of 
information may be gleaned. Without attempting 
to dispute its accuracy or even to expound its 
philosophy (at least in this article) we will condense 



160 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

a few extracts taken at random from the book itself, 
and though couched in the present writer's language, 
the reader may be assured that only for brevity's 
sake has the change of phraseology been adopted. 

Theosophy itself is defined as religion, as dis- 
tinguished from a religion; and on the basis of this 
distinction the author reasons logically that members 
of the Theosophical Society can remain in good stand- 
ing with that body, regardless of their affiliation or 
non-affiliation with other religious bodies. Another 
philosophic point is made in the distinction between 
belief in Gocl and in a God. The simple use of the 
term God on the lips of the Theosophist is tantamount 
to expressing confidence in a supreme Spirit Life 
Force or Intelligence pervading the Universe, without 
attempting to comprehend, limit or define the Infinite; 
while a God on the lips of a Theosophist describes 
recognition or acknowledgment of a certain limited, 
defined and comprehended entity, who because clearly 
finited, cannot possibly be infinite. The seven prin- 
ciples of man, the seven planets and many other sub- 
jects dilated upon by Sinnett in "Esoteric Buddhism," 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 161 

are explained as far, perhaps, as they are explicable to 
the general student; and it is interesting to note that 
a careful perusal of this manual leads to the conclusion 
that the seven planets which form the planetary chain 
are not necessarily such planets as Venus, Mars, 
Jupiter and other orbs in the Solar System to which 
this earth belongs, but seven distinct states or planes 
of consciousness through which every spiritual 
monad or entity must pass before it attains Mahatmic 
supremacy over all material conditions, and con- 
sequently, becomes freed from the necessity of further 
incarnations. On post mortem states of existence, or 
the condition of the ego between terrestrial embodi- 
ments, the author has much to say and the following 
is a fair digest of her teachings. 

The average human being now living a compara- 
tively civilized life in polite or semi-polite society 
lingers not long in Kama-Loca, but enjoys a comfort- 
able season of repose in Devachan, until the operation 
of Karmic law necessitates a return to some terrestrial 
environment. Devachan is quite a fair equivalent for 
the Intermediate State believed in by so many 



162 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

Christians, and though not of a nature to greatly 
attract an active and ambitious temperament, has 
certainly the placid advantage of being entirely free 
from worries and embarrassments of every description. 

As the ego is described as resting in Devaehan, and 
as entitled to undisturbed repose, it is taught that 
though friends on earth may possibly in dreams and 
visions hold some sort of mystical communion with 
the serene dweller in Devachanic blessedness, that 
reposing entity cannot take any active interest in 
their welfare, as his state is one of somnolence rather 
than activity. 

Kama-Loea is the state or place of abode of suicides 
and those who have misspent to a large degree their 
earthly existence. The state of these is not enviable, 
and the faithful are advised to refrain from any 
attempt to communicate with them. 

On social and industrial subjects the author is 
decidedly nationalistic in tendency, and many of her 
views amount to a complete endorsement of the views 
of Edward Bellamy as expressed in u Looking Back- 
ward;' 



THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 163 

The most interior or meditative of Blavatsky's 
books is a little work entitled u The Voice of the 
Silence," which speaks of glorious souls who have 
earned the right to perpetually enjoy the unspeakable 
bliss of Nirvana, who, for love of suffering humanity, 
resign their high and calm estate and enter into the 
seething vortex of mortal tribulation, that they may 
console and uplift those who are caught in its 
maelstrom. 

There is even in this little treatise a pessimistic vein 
which discolors most of the Buddhistic writings, and 
needs relieving by the light and warmth of a brighter 
and less brooding philosophy. 

In America The Path of New York, a monthly 
magazine, edited by the well known William Q. Judge, 
some pamphlets by M. J. Barnett entitled "Simple 
Theosophy" and numerous letters to newspapers by 
enthusiastic advocates of the cult have so far consti- 
tuted the chief stock in trade of avowedly Theosophical 
literature. Claude Falls Wright and several other 
talented young writers who have brought out interest- 
ing books on Theosophy are mostly Englishmen; 



164 THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE. 

therefore, American editions of English books are 
numerous on this side of the Atlantic. 

Annie Besant's contribution to Theosophy must be 
treated in a separate article, as she has recently been 
creating quite a distinctive literature. 



CHAPTER XL 



THE "WORK OF A^ffllE BESA^ T T FOR THEOSOPHY. 

Since the departure of Mme. Blavatsky, by far the 
most prominent and influential public advocate of 
Theosophy, as taught by the Theosophical Society, 
has been the celebrated writer and lecturer, Mrs. 
Annie Besant, who was for many years one of the 
most prominent champions of what is commonly 
styled free thought in England. Mrs. Besant's earlier 
career, before she became acquainted with Theosophy, 
was a remarkable one. She was married early in life 
to a clergyman of the English church, who in no sense 
understood her; and as he was a narrow-minded man 
of conservative instincts, and she particularly given to 
bold and fearless investigation of the evidences of re- 
ligion, it is not surprising that they soon became 
alienated in thought and affection; and through the 
lack of sympathy given to her by the advocates of 

165 



166 WORK OF AKNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

nominal Christianity during the most trying phases of 
her sad experience, Mrs. Besant turned to infidelity 
and became the staunch supporter of Charles Brad- 
laugh in his vigorous attacks upon the old blasphemy 
laws and other strongholds of systematized conserva- 
tism. Unlike many "free-thought" advocates, who 
spend their whole time and energy in fighting creeds 
and seeking to demolish ancient institutions without 
replacing them with better structures, Mrs. Besant de- 
voted her energies and gifts, which were neither few 
nor small, to the work of constructive Socialism. 

To level up the masses, to greatly improve the con- 
dition of the working multitude everywhere, was our 
heroine's noble ambition; and no matter how widely 
her critics may differ from her in theory, if they are 
at all capable of reading character and discerning mo- 
tives, they must confess that the name of Annie 
Besant has long deserved to rank exceptionally high 
among tireless, self-sacrificing laborers in the field of 
industrial reform. 

With the bigotry characteristic of most organiza- 
tions of "free thinkers," so soon as one of the most 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 167 

illustrious of their number took leave of materialism, 
and opened her intellect to broader light than that 
depressing philosophy can yield, the societies to which 
she had formerly belonged threw many a stone at her 
in their representative journals, and soon let her see 
that the iron creed of secularism is fully as aggressive 
as the dogmatic theology of Calvin or any other sect- 
founder, who desired liberty for himself and his own 
theories, but slavery for all the rest of humanity. 

It was through personal acquaintanceship with H. 
P. Blavatsky that Annie Besant first became familiar 
with the tenets of Theosophy as expounded by that 
extraordinary woman. At the headquarters of the 
Theosophical Society in London, in the very house 
which Mme. Blavatsky made her home, Mrs. Besant 
was initiated into the mysteries of that strange 
Oriental system of philosophy, which has, during the 
past twenty years, captivated many brilliant minds, 
who, dissatisfied with the religion of the churches, and 
still more dissatisfied with blank materialism, have 
turned to what professes to be a Mahatmic revelation, 
as an antidote to mere formalism coupled with arro- 



168 WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPH 3T, 

gant dogmatism in religion on the one hand, and the 
soul-starving negations of scholarly agnosticism on the 
other. Nothing ordinary in the way of Spiritualistic 
phenomena would have ever captured Mrs. Besant. 
Her intellect was keen and her agnosticism strongly 
rooted; but so perplexing and withal so enchanting 
were the sorceries (if such they were) of the Russian 
High Priestess of the Himalayan adepts, and so trans- 
parent appeared the sincerity of that very curious 
founder of a new cult in America, that Mrs. Besant 
became an easy convert to the allurements of a system 
of thought which promised to solve every problem in 
the universe, explain the building of the Cosmos, teach 
man how to rise to godlike attainments, and — in a 
word — to lift the veil of Isis and reveal to the gaze of 
the initiated what mortal sense can never dream of. 

That Mrs. Besant found great fascination and not a . 
little consolation in Theosophy is certain; but she has 
probably been considerably disillusioned in some re- 
spects; for the Theosophical movement is by no means 
the beau ideal of spiritual development, nor are the 
proceedings of Theosophical Lodges one whit more dig- 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOE, THEOSOPHY. 169 

nified than those of organizations which lay no sort of 
claim to receiving guidance from Mahatmas or any 
other race of beings superior to ordinary mankind. 
Mrs. Besant's pathway has not been strewn with roses 
since she became the leader of the Theosophical So- 
ciety in one of its sections; but as she was always a 
worker, a leader and an organizer, accustomed to re- 
buffs, opposition and even persecution, she has not 
been disheartened by the strife within the ranks of 
the movement to which for the past several years she 
has been devoting all her energies. 

With the strife between different sections of the 
Theosophical Society in England and America, Mrs. 
Besant may be comparatively unconcerned, as she de- 
voutly believes that a very large and important part 
of the work of the present Theosophical movement 
must be carried on in India on behalf of the native 
population of Hindustan, even more than for the 
benefit of the white races of the world. Though she 
has lectured extensively in America, as well as in her 
native England, and was a prominent figure at the 
World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, 



170 WORK OF AXXIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

it is her work in the Eastern hemisphere that dis- 
tinctly shows her attitude to the Theosophical move- 
ment, and evinces the decidedly Oriental complexion 
of her work. 

We call the reader's attention to a decidedly re- 
markable series of addresses given by Mrs. Besant at 
the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in India, 
on the occasion of the eighteenth annual convention 
held at Adyar. in the province of Madras, from De- 
cember 27 to 31, 1893. almost immediately after her 
visit to Chicago in connection with the Columbian 
Exposition. These lectures, from which we shall give 
a few precise extracts, serve to show their author's 
position on what she conceives to be the true nature 
of Theosophy and its practical mission to the modern 
world. In her preface Mrs. Besant says in effect that 
the four lectures which follow were delivered with in- 
tent to show the value of the teachings of H. P. 
Blavatsky as a guide to the obscurer meanings of the 
Hindu sacred books, and so to vindicate the usefulness 
of the Theosophical and Hindu writings, which con- 
tain identical doctrines. This position being estab- 



W0KK OF AXXIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 171 

lished. it necessarily follows that whoever accepts the 
teachings of Blavatskjan Theosophy must indorse 
and reverence the teachings contained in Vedas and 
Puranas, at least on fundamental matters. Mrs. 
Besant goes on to claim that Theosophy, as she under- 
stands it, is a fragment of the Brahma Vidya of pre- 
Vaidic days, and that the Puranas were intended to 
give to all who have been excluded from a study of 
the Vedas the truths contained therein in a concrete 
form, easy of assimilation. The author then asserts 
that her own acceptance of Theosophy has implied 
and involved from its inception an equal acceptance 
of the Hindu scriptures as the mine out of which the 
gold of spiritual knowledge is to be dug. As a phil- 
osophy Theosophy may be held apart from Hinduism; 
but as a religion it cannot thus be separated. Mrs. 
Besant is, however, careful to explain that if an earnest 
adherent of some other form of faith become convinced 
of the beauty and reasonableness of the Theosophical 
philosophy, he will very probably connect it with his 
own special religious system, and not with Hinduism; 
but if like herself one comes into Theosophy from 



172 WORK OF ANKIE BESAisT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

materialism, and seeks some kind of religious expres- 
sion after embracing Theosophy, the ancient Sanskrit 
forms preserved in Hinduism will appeal with striking 
force. Mrs. Besant declares that Theosophy thus em- 
bodied has been to her both intellectually and devo- 
tionally satisfying; or, in other words, it has met the 
requirements of all the varied planes of her nature, 
thereby giving her a sense of contentment she never 
enjoyed when anxiously wrestling with theological 
problems in her youth, or when promulgating the 
tenets of materialism in riper womanhood. 

It is interesting to note that this brilliant and fear- 
less woman has openly professed herself a Hindu as 
well as a Theosophist, though she repudiates what she 
calls the absurd story of her conversion to Hinduism 
after she visited India, meaning that before leaving 
England she accepted Hinduism and Theosophy to- 
gether. Between 1889 and 1894 she says there had 
been no change in her convictions, except an ever in- 
creasing clearness of vision and expansion of knowl- 
edge, coupled with an ever growing depth of satisfac- 
tion with the teachings embraced. 



WORK OF AXXIE BESAKT FOR THEOSOPHY. 173 

The lectures themselves are decidedly profound and 
unusual as to their subject matter, as they deal with 
nothing less than the building of the Cosmos, which 
includes not only the construction of this solar sys- 
tem, but constellations almost too numerous even to 
imagine. There is, however, less real difficulty to be 
encountered in the pursuance of this stupendous theme 
than is at first supposed, for, taking any one planet as a 
sample of all planets — and this we are justified in doing 
by reason of the latest disclosures of astronomy — the 
constitution of the universe is not impossible, or even 
very difficult to determine. Theosophy always syn- 
thetizes before it attempts to analyze. It is, there- 
fore, a consistent and coherent system of thought 
which only needs to be seriously studied to be under- 
stood by any intelligent and patient enquirer. 

Whether Mrs. Besant's views will find acceptance 
at the hands of a majority of Mental Scientists is 
scarcely our business to enquire. We can but state 
them as clearly and fully as we are able in the limited 
space at our disposal, leaving the readers to draw their 
own conclusions, accepting what appeals to them as 



174 WORK OF A5TNTE BESAXT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

reasonable and true, and laying aside the remainder, 
if residue there be. 

The first subject treated upon is Sound; and with 
this erudite theme, so inextricably interwoven with 
the ever popular subject of vibrations, Mrs. Besant 
deals with the skill of a master, though she is all the 
while seeking to show that the highest attainments of 
Western science to-day in no instance surpass the re- 
sults obtained by the Hindu pundits of antiquity. 
This position is easily tenable when we remember the 
latest results of archaeological research in many parts 
of the ancient East, and when we further keep in 
memory that it is not the average information of the 
masses of the people, but the exceptional wisdom of 
the masters or adepts which is enshrined in the mysti- 
cal Oriental documents, which are said to contain all 
this surpassing information. 

The Oriental scriptures differ from the Hebrew and 
the Christian in the following important respect. 
The latter seem contented to relate incidents and con- 
vey moral teaching, while the former are replete with 
scientific information. The Christian Theosophist 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 175 

may, therefore, turn freely to India for secular knowl- 
edge without thinking for a moment that — having the 
New Testament in his hands — he can possibly require 
another vade mecum of religious or ethical instruction. 

Science and religion are, however, so completely at 
one in the minds of Orientals of the philosophic cast 
that they cannot divorce one from the other; and it is 
just where the two are so palpably one that we find 
their teachings embodying the exalted conception of 
no religion higher than truth. 

Sound seems at first to be a secular topic, in no way 
affecting what is generally known as spirituality; yet 
a moment's reflection will convince us that the single 
word sound covers the entire territory occupied not 
only by music, but by every variety of speech by 
means of which spiritual or moral lessons are conveyed. 
The metaphysics of this subject are intricate and pro- 
found, but they are susceptible of elucidation, and 
where Sanskrit terms are easily translated into good 
English, the ideas expressed in the original language 
are easily grasped by Western thinkers in their new 
dress. 



176 WORK OF A^OTE BESAKT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

We often hear in the West of spirit and matter, as 
though there were two distinct substances in the 
universe in no way connected with each other. Eastern 
philosophers convey the idea of a single dual substance, 
or an essential primal substance, containing all the 
properties displayed by what we have been accustomed 
to call spirit, and also by what we have agreed to call 
matter. This essential unitary substance, dual in its 
nature, may be termed spirit-matter, a compound word 
which gives a very much better idea of the reality of 
things than the two words spirit and matter as they 
are commonly employed. One thing is not another 
thing, as all things are of necessity distanced or 
differentiated from each other; but all things are ex- 
pressions of one primal force or primordial substance, 
and this substance inevitably includes within itself the 
properties and elements of all the forms which are 
produced in the carrying out of the manifold processes 
of its manifestation. In the "Secret Doctrine," quoted 
by Mrs. Besant, the following passage occurs: "The 
one Divine Essence, unmanifested perpetually be- 
getting a second self manifested, which second self, 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 177 

androgynous in its nature, gives birth in an immacu- 
late way to everything macrocosmical and microcos- 
mical in this universe." 

Life and thought are said to be primary. We, 
therefore, contemplate as the origin of all things not 
dead matter or senseless energy, but conscious intelli- 
gence. The recent researches of the great English 
scientist, Prof. Crookes, who was the inventor of the 
radiometer, are said to prove to Western scientists the 
truth of much that has long lain concealed in the 
Oriental Scriptures. The great discovery made by 
Crookes, and by him explained to an audience of picked 
scientists of England in 1891, is that the atom is not 
eternal as an atom, for it is produced and destructible. 
The atom is dual and should be regarded as a neutral 
body, formed by the joining of the positive and nega- 
tive elements in nature, and it is permanent by reason 
of its duality. When we seek to trace how atoms are 
builded we are compelled to posit a primal substance 
such as R oger Bccon, the celebrated mediaeval Occultist, 
called protyle. This protyle in motion generates the 
force allied to electricity, which traces for itself a 



178 WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

spiral course wherever it travels through the universe. 
The ancient symbol of the serpent, which every- 
where occupies a prominent place in symbolism, is a 
scientific figure of the spiral coiling itself continually. 
It, therefore, conveys a correct idea of Cosmic motion. 
The somewhat unfamiliar word Fohat is constantly 
introduced into Theosophical writings, and this stands 
for the great singular force which underlies all those 
myriad manifestations of the workings of force per se, 
which we are accustomed to designate by the plural, 
forces. Vibration being generated by the constant 
movement of Something — and force is never actually 
at rest — sound results; and sound possesses unmis- 
takably the attributes of form and color, a scientific 
demonstration of which has been most successfully 
given through the experiments of the well known Mrs. 
Watts-Hughes and other pains-taking experimentalists 
in recent years. 

Sound is the builder of form. This is the vibratory 
theory now so popular among enquirers into Occultism. 
Sound does three distinct things. It creates form, it 
upholds form and it destroys form. Thus it acts like 



WORK OF AKKIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHT. 179 

the three persons of the Brahmanical Trinity — Brahma 
who is always creating, Vishnu who is continually 
preserving that which has been created, and Siva who 
is perpetually destroying or dissolving. The three are, 
therefore, the Creator, Preserver and Transformer; and 
these three are in essence one, though in functions 
three. The experiments of Mrs. Hughes and those 
who worked with her, abundantly proved that the 
notes sounded by the human voice produced in per- 
fection the forms of flowers, shells and many other 
natural objects; and these were rendered larger, fuller 
and more distinct as the sound was intensified and the 
notes of the singer became more resonating and 
sustained. 

One of the greatest beauties of the system of scien- 
tific religion deduced by Mrs. Besant from the ancient 
bibles of India, is that it is in strict accord with the 
latest researches and disclosures of material science 
so-called as far as that can go; and while we are not 
at all prepared to bend the knee in abject submission 
to an external and painfully limited version of science, 
as taken by agnostic professors in German colleges 



180 WORK OF AU2STE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

and elsewhere, we do contend that all attempts to 
answer the clamoring of the soul for knowledge con- 
cerning God and its own immortality, by stifling 
scientific research and bolstering up unscientific dog- 
matism in the midst of intelligent communities is 
worse than useless. 

If Theosophy, stripped of its eccentricities, and most 
of all of its personalisms, can demonstrate the union 
between the two aspects of the universe, commonly 
called the two worlds, and prove the exact relation 
between the seen and the unseen, it will then ac- 
complish the great work which its admiring advocates 
declare it has been appointed to perform by the 
Mahatmas or illustrious adepts who are its head; but 
to do this it must strip itself entirely of very much 
with which it is now saddled; and particularly must it 
throw off all yoke of allegiance to pretentious individ- 
uals who seek to glorify themselves and hold the 
society in bondage. 

Mrs. Besant has been specially qualified for the 
arduous work she has undertaken by a long, brave 
career, which very few women or men either would 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 181 

have the courage to undertake; and now that she has 
consecrated her unusually fine reasoning powers to 
the promulgation o£ Oriental ideas, brought up to date 
and translated out of Sanskrit into English terras of 
speech, we may well predict that if she continues 
steadfastly with her task, she will do a great deal to- 
ward bringing the liberal thinkers of the East and 
West nearer together than it has seemed possible ever 
to bring them before. Mrs. Besant's enthusiasm for 
India is truly wonderful; for she — like Sir Edwin 
Arnold— is English to the backbone. There must be 
something strangely fascinating in the land and its 
native population to cause Sir Edwin Arnold to speak 
of himself as an ardent lover of India, though none 
the less a lover of his native isle. Now, listen to the 
impassioned words of Mrs. Besant, with which she ends 
a lecture on "Fire," in which she strongly emphasizes 
the ancient occult teaching that the holy fires are 
bright beings radiant with high and holy intelligence: 
"Then in our land of India, the great Gods looking 
downward, shall once more see the Fires ascending 
heavenward, not the household fires which remain as 



182 WORK OF A^NIE BESA^T FOR THEOSOPHY. 

symbol, but that Fire of the Spirit, which, aspiring up- 
ward toward Their Feet, shall draw us upward toward 
Them and make India again what she should be — the 
very Light of the World and the Child of the Gods. 
Aye! her ancient people shall be children of the Gods 
once more; and when love shall be burning in each 
heart as Fire, the whole will flame upward to Their 
throne/' 

The extraordinary capitalization which characterizes 
the printed form of most Theosophical addresses is 
evidently intended to impress readers with the superior 
powers possessed and exercised by those unseen in- 
telligences who are called gods; beings who were once 
men and women like ourselves on some earth spme- 
where in the boundless universe, and who by dint of 
cultivating the spirit of divinity within them, have 
now become the rulers of worlds and planetary systems. 
Truly Theosophy holds out unending vistas of future 
progress before the ambitious ego; and what is most 
beautiful of all is that when it is taught purely and 
ennoblingly it counsels not selfish devotion to one's 
own attainments, but work for the great whole of 



WORK OF ANNIE BESANT FOR THEOSOPHY. 183 

humanity, whose welfare includes that of every in- 
dividual member and is enhanced by every step in real 
progress taken by any individual unit included in the 
grand mass. In her striking discourse on "Yoga," 
Mrs. Besant makes this very clear, and with her usual 
keen insight into the subjects with which she under- 
takes to deal, she wisely exalts the moral and philan- 
thropic aspects of the question far above the ceremonial. 

In another essay we shall have something more to say 
on "Yoga" as an aid to concentration of thought, and 
thereby to the facilitation of occult development; but 
as a fitting end to this chapter we will give one more 
quotation from the writings of the noble woman whose 
work for Theosophy has been our central theme on 
this occasion: u You must learn to be indifferent to 
results, provided you do your duty, leaving the out- 
come in the hands of the mighty forces that work in 
the universe, and that only ask of you to give them 
the outer material in which they may clothe themselves 
while you remain one with them. To do this you 
must be pure; you must always have the heart fixed 
on the one reality. The devotee is ever within, in the 



184 WORK OF BESAKT FOR THEOSOPHY. 

heart, always within the shrine, and the mind and 
the body are busy in the outer world. That is true 
Yoga, the real secret of Yoga." 

If this teaching is rendered thoroughly practical by 
constant reliance upon the divinity which is the very 
essence of every individual life, we are sure the state 
of "higher carelessness" advocated by Theosophy, will 
be attained, and illumination of the intellect must 
ensue. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY — ITS RELATION TO MEXTAL 

SCIEXCTi:. 

In our last essay, in which we considered at some 
length the views of Annie Besant and quoted from 
her published writings her pronounced attitude in 
favor of Hinduism, we introduced a theory of the 
Cosmos, which, when intelligently considered, leads to 
the inevitable conclusion that — the substance of the 
universe being homogeneous, what we are accustomed 
to call matter is really only a crude or external form 
of mind. The Mental Scientist does not and cannot 
conceive of matter apart from intelligence, which is 
omnipresent and all-pervasive. We can and do realize 
that there are cruder and finer expressions of this one 
substance, but there is in a last analysis no blind force 
and no dead matter. It is to Theosophy in its broadest 
sense that we are indebted for many a profound logical 
and strictly scientific statement concerning involution 

185 



186 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

and evolution, as the Theosophist is the only one who, 
while thoroughly accepting the doctrine of evolution, 
undertakes to account for the fact that evolution is 
only a process of unveiling, and, therefore, the at- 
tributes made manifest during the progress of this 
process are all necessarily pre-existent and contained 
within the unrolling ego. 

Using the title Theosophist in this expanded sense, 
we of course do not in any way confine it to those who 
assume to be the only true Theosophists, because they 
closely adhere to what they- regard as the infallible 
output of some mysterious Oriental brotherhood. 
Theosophists there have always been, in and out of 
the Christian church and all other organizations, and 
those within the pale of the church have always been 
the mystical teachers who have been its saving salt, 
preserving it from utter destruction in times when 
clergy and laity alike have given themselves over to 
corruption. The new type of Theosophist which is 
now beginning to appear in America and Europe is a 
worthy successor of the noble company of esoteric 
teachers, whose pure and peaceful lives have always 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 187 

been a standing reproach to the external aggressive- 
ness of the outward church; and while some are far 
more given to pietj^ and devotion than others — using 
those words in their conventional sense — there are 
several fundamental and most important points of 
agreement between all Theosophists, of even widely 
differing schools, that — though terminology may vary 
greatly — there is no good reason why a harmonious 
modus Vivendi should not be established, and the points 
of resemblance rather than of variance between the 
several schools be accentuated. 

In the first place all truly Theosophic intellects 
conceive of the two selves of man, one as the seat of 
root affections, and the other as the seat of transitory 
desires; the root affections being embedded in the per- 
manent higher self, which is alike in all of us, and the 
transient desires of the intellect being ephemeral and 
incidental to the particular stages of development 
through which some of us are now passing. 

The real will of the individual is seated in the per- 
manent ego or atma ; and as this highest principle in 
man is changeless and, therefore, immortal, the root 



188 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

desire of every human being is the same. However 
faulty may be the commonly accepted definitions of 
Theosophical terms, it is both ridiculous and unfair to 
attribute the misconceptions of would-be interpreters 
of profound doctrines and the inconsistencies of 
prejudiced intellects to the essential tenets of a vener- 
able cult. In the Theosophical publications of the 
Western world, a great deal of nonsense has been 
printed concerning mental healing; and as adverse 
criticism of a metaphysical system of healing is chiefly 
due to ignorance on the part of writers and readers 
alike, it is clearly incumbent upon those who know 
better and who can reach the public ear to answer 
objections in a calm, philosophical temper, scorning 
the use of offensive language, though not necessarily 
refraining from a judicious employment of befitting 
sarcasm when exposing errors too gross to be permitted 
to pass undisputed on their misleading way. 

There are certain stock-in-trade objections to mental 
healing which are perpetually brought to the front by 
dabblers in Theosophy who substitute caprice for reason, 
and who travesty language to make out a case. Now, 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 189 

Karma is a Theosophieal doctrine, though not as 
ordinarily prated of by those who misuse it for the 
purpose of venting their spleen against mental healers. 
The doctrine of Karma can be philosophically con- 
nected with or disconnected from the usually allied 
doctrine of reincarnation; for whether one does or 
does not believe in the latter, the former can be ac- 
curately defined as unswerving consequence, Karma 
is not something we have accumulated just so much 
of during a previous embodiment, or during the past 
years of our present earthly existence. It is some- 
thing we are continually dealing with, and as a vari- 
able product of our varying condition it is subject to 
incessant change, for it registers and proceeds from 
our condition every moment. The true Theosophic 
doctrine does not admit of the remission of any 
penalty which proceeds from the transgression of 
law, for its standing motto is, "As you sow so must 
you reap;" but as we are, every one of us, continually 
sowing fresh seed in our mental gardens by every 
thought we entertain, we are constantly changing, by 
our thinking, the actual condition of our existence. 



190 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

Some people are severely straitened in financial cir- 
cumstances by reason of their past inefficiency, idleness 
or mismanagement, and to these the message of The- 
osophy, when rightly delivered, is not that they should 
"grin and bear" misfortune as though it were inevitable, 
thereby foolishly justifying a further continuance in 
a poverty-stricken condition, but they are bidden to 
arise out of their low estate, to change their relation 
to the inflexible Karmic law, and make of it their 
friend instead of foe. 

The misapplication of the Karmic idea in such a 
connection leads to laziness, pessimism and despair, 
even though the more dignified and classic phrase, 
resignation to the inevitable, may be on the tongue. 

Resignation is not a virtue. It is rather a vice, for 
instead of developing, it dwarfs character and vetoes 
self-reliance, without which we are ninnies rather 
than noble-hearted men and women. True Theosophy 
may issue a pamphlet with the title, "Karma as a Cure 
for Trouble," and may accomplish useful work by so 
doing; but the pamphlet needs to be wisely written 
and rendered explanatory of the eternal law of 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 191 

sequence, an acquaintance with the workings of which 
must emancipate us all from the servitude to fate — so- 
called — in which we have been so long imprisoned. 

To accept whatever comes as being all for the best 
is in one sense right, but in another altogether wrong; 
and it needs but a little sober reasoning to show clearly 
the distinction and opposition between these views of 
u all for the best." If the operation of the law of 
sequence be entirely beneficent in its final outcome, 
we may rest assured that all things are working to- 
gether for the best. This causes our philosophy to be 
thoroughly optimistic at the core. 

Henry Wood in his most recent collection of meta- 
physical essays, called u Studies in the Thought 
World," brings out the uses of pain and suffering of 
every sort very finely and intelligently. Pain is an 
educator. We do learn through suffering. We learn 
thereby to correct mistakes and avoid falling in the 
future into the errors of the past. We have, therefore, 
good and sufficient cause for thankfulness, even in the 
presence of the direst seeming disasters. 

Helen Wilmans, in a masterly editorial published in 



192 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

Freedom, told her readers to rename their obstacles 
opportunities, and consider each in the light of a 
gymnasium bar on which to try their strength. Such 
teaching embodies the quintessence of Theosophy, and 
such teaching would prove highly acceptable in the 
eyes of all genuine masters or adepts, who have come 
into the knowledge of how to govern occult forces and 
compel the cruder elements of nature to serve in all 
things the powerful and triumphant will of the spirit. 

To interfere with the workings of Karmic law is 
absolutely impossible; therefore, it can be neither 
wrong nor right; for it cannot be logically included 
in the category of possible human achievements. All 
things are possible within the circuit of the operation 
of the changeless law of the universe, but it is not 
possible for any one to tamper with or change the law. 

Mental healers who understand the scientific manip- 
ulation of the finer forces of nature address the real 
individual whom they are treating, and speak to the 
primal, unwavering will of the ego, which is always 
for righteousness; or they address the intellect of the 
patient or pupil, and call upon it to listen to the voice 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 193 

of the true undying self and show forth inharmonious 
expression the desires of the real being. Much con- 
troversy often arises over the question of the relation 
between hypnotism and mental healing; and as the 
former word is a terrible scarecrow to some self-styled 
and self-appointed leaders in the Theosophical Society, 
it is brought forth again and again as a terrific bug- 
bear to intimidate the unenlightened. Hypnotism is 
by no means the diabolical invention it is often made 
out to be, and our thanks are certainly due to Professor 
Hudson, author of "The Law of Psychic Phenomena," 
for the learning and fair-mindedness displayed by 
him in his elucidations of the hypnotic mystery. As 
hypnotism is derived simply from the Greek hypnos, 
meaning sleep, hypnotic only means sleep-inducing; 
therefore, hypnotic treatment is a proper antidote to 
sleeplessness; but to seek to make that one much 
abused word cover the entire ground of suggestive 
action is a pure absurdity. 

Suggestion, meaning a simple appeal, invitation or 
reminder made by one to another, is a perfectly appro- 
priate term to apply to the Modus operandi of mental 



194 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

healing; and of suggestions there are two great 
varieties: 

First, suggestions made by one individual to another; 
second, auto-suggestions or suggestions made by an 
individual on one plane of his consciousness to himself 
on another plane. 

We sometimes give a lecture on the genius of men- 
tal healing, bearing the somewhat striking title, "If I 
think I am ill, how can I hnoiv that I am well?' 1 A 
lecture with such a title always draws a large audience, 
and usually provokes a number of questions following 
it. We will endeavor to give the gist of that lecture 
in this connection, to show the line along which we 
proceed when undertaking to expound a metaphysical 
philosophy and rebuff false charges frequently brought 
against mental practice by certain Theosophists, 
Spiritualists and other professedly progressive as well 
as confessedly conservative people. 

When I feel or think or believe that I am unwell I 
am conscious of certain sensations, and these sensa- 
tions have, of course, an efficient cause, or they could 
■ not exist. I do not proceed to deny the existence of 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 195 

those sensations, nor do I deny that they have an 
efficient cause on the external plane where they are 
made manifest; but I do not confound the real in- 
dividual which I am, with the instrument through 
which I am temporarily expressed. If I think that 
I am ill, instead of realizing that my machinery, 
through which I work, is out of order, then am 
I laboring under a grievous error, an error which 
so far subjugates me to the control of externals that 
I am for the time being a helpless victim to the 
dominance of surrounding conditions, which it is my 
right to dominate instead of permitting them to 
govern me. If I look only to appearances and view 
everything from the outside, I shall perforce conclude 
that I am ill, because I look ill, I feel ill, and have or 
exhibit all the outward symptoms of disorder. When 
I turn from without to within, from the superficial to 
the central, from the evanescent to the permanent. I 
make the discovery that I am well, though my instru- 
ment may not be. Grasping the thought that I am 
the instrumentalist, I claim my power to attune my 
instrument to my use; and as I proclaim this power 



196 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

and willfully exert it, I begin to make new and better 
Karma — to use the pet phrases o£ those very Theoso- 
phists who ignorantly denounce mental healing. 

This process of mental healing is thoroughly The- 
osophical, and is from first to last in exact accord with 
the teaching that we are makers, unmakers and re- 
makers of our own Karmic conditions. 

But that is simply self-treatment, some will say, and 
the objection instituted is toward the treatment of 
others. Very well, then, let us see how the case stands 
with regard to our relations with our neighbors. We 
are none of us entirely independent one of the other. 
We all influence each other for bane or blessing in 
proportion to our mutual sensitiveness, and in exact 
accord with our own internal states. We are con- 
stantly treating or influencing each other, both know- 
ingly and unknowingly, and our influence reaches out 
for good precisely to the degree that we entertain help- 
ful and elevating opinions one of another. We are 
treating people, though perhaps unconsciously, every 
time we think about them; but whether they receive 
the treatment and act upon it or not, depends upon 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 197 

their condition at the time. Now, as we are con- 
stantly thinking o£ others, even when we are not 
talking about them, it is surely an ethical and Theo- 
sophical resolve to determine to think well and speak 
helpfully of all with whom we have any dealings 
whatsoever; and as the unkind and depressing thoughts 
of people are constantly forming a dark cloud of 
shadow through which it is hard for the light of joy 
and courage to penetrate in many places, the chief 
work of the mental healer consists in antidoting by 
contradiction (opposite statement) this depressing 
cloud of pessimistic belief and expectation which lies 
over the world like a funeral pall. Whenever any one 
feels a kind, invigorating thought he takes to it as 
readily as a duck goes to the water, thereby proving 
that people are actively as well as passively willing to 
be helped and blessed, but no one wants to be hin- 
dered and cursed. 

If you suggest to a child that he is ill you depress 
him. He therefore resents it and soon begins to 
whimper and take a dislike to you. If on the contrary 
you suggest to the same child that he is well, strong 



198 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

and happy, your suggestions are so pleasant that they 
are eagerly welcomed, and you are of all people the 
one whom the child is most delighted to welcome. 

A great deal depends upon voice and manner, even 
in silent treatment, for the sub-self is very sensitive 
to what underlies, and is the cause of whatever the 
outer self ultimately manifests. Kindness and firm- 
ness are alike necessary to success, and wherever an 
ailment is deep-seated that you are endeavoring to 
eradicate, your most successful attitude of mind is to 
trace it back to a chronic or habitual state of thought 
and suggest the very opposite of that old erroneous 
condition of the intellect. Karmic results, in so far 
as they are disagreeable and have sprung from bygone 
malpractices, gradually and surely fade out if they are 
overcome by new courses of action, but not otherwise. 
On the physiological plane we witness an exact cor- 
respondence to the psychological in the following 
order: A medical man declares that a man's system 
is choked with nicotine, for he has been an inveterate 
smoker for many years, and commenced indulging in 
cigarets when yet in his early teens. It is not possible 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 199 

to remove the effects of all this saturation of the body 
with tobacco in a moment, but it is possible to get the 
sufferer from his own folly to refrain from adding to 
the weight of his Karmic load by crowding still more 
nicotine into his overburdened system. If the man 
gives up smoking the nicotine will gradually, and may 
be rapidly, escape from his body through the pores, 
and if he puts no more in he will find that the un- 
interrupted working of transformatory law in his 
organism will renovate his entire frame in a much 
shorter time than many people imagine to be possible, 
The real difficulty to be encountered in such a case is 
not physical in any sense, for it is not the tobacco 
habit, regarded externally, which has to be dealt with, 
the source of the mischief being in the abnormal 
craving of the misdirected will of the intellect for the 
perpetual effects of a narcotic. 

It is not the tobacco habit, nor the opium habit, nor 
the liquor habit, nor any other habit that can be suc- 
cessfully counteracted medically, because the cravings 
are seated in the intellect. Therefore, a drug which 
temporarily nauseates somebody, being an outward 



200 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

article can at most produce but a temporary benefit, 
and that is a doubtful advantage. Mental healing 
goes to the root of the matter by attacking the craving 
at its source, and this not by the aggressive method of 
deliberately opposing the error in so many words, but 
by appealing to, so as to stimulate to activity, desirable 
tendencies which have hitherto remained dormant. 

The new Theosophy will not fall into the barbarous 
ruts of the old, and already there are neo-Theosophists 
among us — bright, intelligent women and men — who 
are beginning to see how to apply recondite theories 
of the universe to the actual necessities of the present. 
The new Theosophy is not afraid to tackle the Tam- 
many tiger in New York, or any other ferocious cor- 
porate animal which clutches at the throats of the 
people and attempts to strangle liberty, but the 
methods of many would-be reformers can only develop 
a new beast, possibly a hyena, which, though a change 
from the old tiger, is by no means preferable. It is 
the province of Theosophy to clearly accentuate the 
doctrine that all human beings are good at the core; 
that their many mistakes are all vincible; that penal- 



THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 201 

ties which follow transgression of order are all reme- 
dial. On the basis of these three grand affirmations, 
even though no more be added, it is certainly possible 
to erect a societary structure which will be harmonious 
in all its parts. 

We are not so much interested in showing w T here 
philosophies diverge, as in pointing to a common meet- 
ing ground whereon all sincere philanthropists can 
marshal their now scattered forces and do effective, be- 
cause united, service on behalf of a purer, higher, 
healthier, happier social order than has ever yet been 
ultimated. We must not forget that a community is 
only an aggregation of units. Whatever course is best 
to pursue on behalf of one is also best for all. Oar 
essential interests are identical universally. Only our 
accidentals or minor incidental interests appear to con- 
flict, and when even such is seemingly the case, a 
broader view of all the facts will show that in reality 
every human interest is in league with every other. 
We are assuredly entering upon a new social order; a 
new political economy is demanded, and to meet the 
requirements of the coming age we must find a way 



202 THE COMING THEOSOPHY. 

to enrich all by pauperizing none. When every indi- 
vidual takes a proper view of the part he has to play 
in the universal army, the road to wealth in every 
direction will be made plain. One truth must be in- 
sisted upon as the basis of all regeneration; viz., that 
as health and happiness are due to internal states 
rather than to environment, the wealth of one, rightly 
understood, never means another's poverty, nor does 
the poverty of one ever signify another's wealth. So- 
ciety can be beneficently reconstructed only in accord- 
ance with the foregoing proposition. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR MENTAL AND PSYCHICAL 
DEVELOPMENT — YOGA PRACTICE. 

In any popular and brief attempt to enter into the 
mysteries of Yoga, it must always be born in mind 
that East Indian Yoga practice, in the degenerate fonn. 
in which it is frequently introduced to the public of 
Europe and America, is by no means identical with 
the original Yoga of the Bishis and other Wise Men 
of the East. As there are two not only distinct but 
even diametrically opposed theories extant in the 
Orient to-day, and they have been handed down from 
immemorial antiquity, concerning the true method of 
cultivating the inner force latent in all mankind — 
these two opposing theories — when not properly dif- 
ferentiated each from the other in the writings of 
those who undertake to define what is regarded as 
Theosophical in India — have given rise to a great deal 

of misapprehension and to the constant multiplication 

203 



204 THEOSOPHECAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

of conflicting opinions regarding the oldest and most 
authentic Hindu methods of practice for the purpose 
of reaching those sublime altitudes of attainment 
which constitute those who reach them adepts. 

One of these theories is that the revolting practices 
of self-torture, often amounting to cruel and disgust- 
ing butcherv of the living man. are recommended and 
endorsed by the wisest among Hindu teachers. Such 
we emphatically state is not the case; for. though there 
are many native Hindu fakirs and many Mohammedan 
dervishes to be met with all over the East, and some — 
though by no means all of these — practice blood- 
curdling rites, these are not Brahmans of high caste, 
nor are they followers of the adepts in the methods of 
their procedure. 

The other theory which is. indeed, the correct one. is 
that which is both professed and practiced by true 
followers of the Buddhas. who have all taught — with- 
out a solitary exception — that the true road to initia- 
tion of the highest kind is to be found only along 
pathways of strict obedience to the most exacting 
requirements of the law of the universe, which 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 205 

peremptorily insists that the body shall be properly 
cared for, but so disciplined like unto an exquisite and 
well tuned instrument, that it may be always in readi- 
ness to serve as a means of expression for the intuitions 
of the indwelling entity, who can use a well tuned 
and well preserved instrument far better than a 
mangled and perverted one. 

It is a tenet of all Tbeosophies that man is himself 
capable, through the exercise of will, aided by the 
acquisition of knowledge, to do whatever he pleases 
with his organic frame, even to the extent of learning 
how to suspend animation and resume it at will. The 
mere wonder-worker, the traveling fakir, who, with no 
other clothing than a simple loin-cloth, can do such 
amazing "tricks" in open daylight in presence of a 
horde of curious, half frightened and half incredulous 
spectators, is not one of the order of illustrious 
adepts to whose glorious company the aspiring student 
of Theosophy hopes eventually to belong. The won- 
der-maker is sometimes a good hypnotist; at other 
times he is a natural magician or spirit-medium, in 
whose presence wonderful phenomena occur beyond 



206 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

his own control. Sometimes these marvelous per- 
formers of occult wonders are little more than skele- 
tons in appearance. They are frightfully emaciated 
in body, but intensely strong in will-power, and the 
magic they practice is largely due to their deliber- 
ate cultivation of the psychical in preference to the 
distinctly physical tendencies of their nature. 

There is clearly a discoverable law governing these 
astounding manifestations of occult energy, and those 
who are prepared to wade through deep waters of self- 
denial on the outer planes, that they may develop 
wondrous strength and ability on the inner, will 
assuredly meet with the particular reward of which 
they are in search, provided they are continuously 
faithful. But though such strange and weird phe- 
nomena as those accompanying the fakir excite to-day 
scientific as well as merely curious interest, the great 
majority of people have no special desire to pose as 
itinerant magicians, or live as exempt from the or- 
dinary pleasures and employments of the world as do 
these self-immolated members of certain orders, which 
teach that spirit and body are in perpetual conflict, 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 207 

and that the latter must be suppressed in every way 
imaginable that the former may prove its power and 
ascendency. 

The higher Oriental counsels all point in the 
direction of cultivating the spiritual man by a very 
different process; viz., by fixing the thought on higher 
goals than are ordinarily kept in sight, and by striving 
to attain nobler prizes than the Majority are content 
to win. 

Concentration is the life of Yoga; but concentration 
does not necessitate willful denial of the lower self, 
but, on the contrary, determinately persistent gratifica- 
tion of the higher self. 

There are certainly two sets of desires in all of us. 
the one pointing toward enslavement in sense, the 
other tending toward complete mastery over the lower 
appetites. We can live as animals, or we can soar to 
heights whither animals have no desire to climb; and 
in order to attain to eminence in the higher direction, 
we must be prepared to live for it and bend all our 
energies toward it. The sacrifices actually demanded 
are only in the nature of exchanges. There are two 



208 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

paths opening before the chela or probationer, and he 
can take one or the other, but he cannot pursue both. 

The erroneous thought entertained by many that 
Yoga practice implies injury done to the physical 
frame involves a fundamental' misconception of the 
most ancient idea, which was simply an insistence 
upon the fundamental necessity of absolute concen- 
tration upon a given object, realized by mental vision, 
though unseen by the physical eye. The entire 
practice of Toga from first to last hinges upon com- 
plete abstraction of mental gaze from all external 
sights, so that the inward look may be riveted upon 
such interior verities as pertain to the psychical plane 
of consciousness. Deep, regular breathing has always 
been recommended as the first and highest requisite; 
and this breathing is purely natural as taught by the 
wisest expounders of the system. 

Again we must draw the sharpest possible line 
between pure, original Yoga and the falsifications of 
later days, and also again discriminate between the 
sincere attempt to liberate the inner powers of human 
nature and artificial striving after abnormal phases 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 209 

of magic — never wholly white, and often verging 
closely on the decidedly black or perverted use of 
psychical endowments. 

For all — men, women and children — acquaintance 
with the rudiments of Yoga is profitable, for the first 
lesson is purely physiological, as well as psychological, 
and relates to deep, regular inspiration and consequent 
orderly respiration. Many modern physicians, men 
and women of broad culture and liberal ideas, declare 
that right breathing is a successful and — when pursued 
constantly and systematically till it becomes habit- 
ual — an infallible cure for consumptive tendencies and 
pulmonary afflictions of all descriptions. 

The student must accustom himself to realize that 
his physical anatomy is in all particulars correspondent 
to his real self or spiritual ego, and that control over 
the action of the physique is due to right mental 
action. This is a truly metaphysical premise, and lies 
at the root of all improvement in exterior conditions. 
The solar plexus, the great ganglionic centre lying 
immediately back of the abdomen, is the source 
whence the act of conscious breathing should proceed. 



210 Theosophical suggestions, etc. 

The posture of the body should be erect, the 
shoulders thrown well back, and the air allowed free 
course through the entire system to the end that the 
lungs are kept perfectly aired and the blood thoroughly 
oxygenated. By breathing regularly and strongly, 
pronouncing meanwhile the sacred syllable Om or Aum 
with clear, persistent resonating intonation, it is 
claimed that a state of perfect equilibrium or rightful 
polarization can most readily be obtained. As this 
exercise is natural, simple and healthful, every one is 
at liberty to try it and test its efficacy for himself; and 
if any other word than the world-famed Sanskrit 
syllable Om suggests itself to any of our readers as 
more significant and appropriate in their case, the 
verbal substitution of another term — provided the in- 
tention and exercise are the same — will not hinder the 
result. 

One of the most important phases of Yoga, and one, 
moreover, that must in no case be neglected, is the 
practice of devoting a given time every day to a stated 
exercise with some definite end in view. The veriest 
tyro in Mental Science knows something of the im- 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 211 

portance of keeping desire and expectation always 
together, and of doing whatever one does with the 
distinct understanding that the doing of it is a part of 
the process needed to unfold the interior self-hood, so 
as to accomplish eventually the complete manifesta- 
tion of the special good desired, To devote from five 
minutes to an hour every day at the same time to a 
special exercise, and determine that nothing shall 
prevent the doin^ of the special deed at the fixed time, 
is a very valuable exercise, not so much on account of 
the value attaching to the thing done, as by reason of 
the habit of concentration thereby formed and the 
step taken in the domination of circumstances. 

The central idea involved in the practice of Yoga is 
that circumstances must be made to yield to us to the 
end that we may grow to conquer our environment in- 
stead of being unduly influenced by it, as the majority 
of people surely are at present. Most people one 
meets declare that they are utterly irtthe grip of their 
environment. They have many tyrannical masters, 
but they know not who they are; therefore, they 
weakly allow themselves to be governed by whatsoever 



212 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

is in the ascendant for the time being. Being con- 
stantly switched from the track, and made to do what 
they have no disposition to do, they are easy victims 
to diseases commonly called infectious; and they are 
equally the prey of very much that is not ordinarily 
considered contagious, though it is in reality every 
whit as infectious where people are intensely sensitive 
as the most pronounced varieties of contagious dis- 
orders enumerated in works on pathology. We do 
not usually trace results back to their producing 
causes with any degree of intelligent logic, and it is 
because of our failure thus to do that we experience 
so many mysterious and trying experiences, all of 
which can and will be for the future avoided, im- 
mediately we come into the acknowledgment of our 
rightful inheritance over surrounding conditions. 

The practice of Yoga in India is of various- kinds; 
and while some varieties are even barbarous and re- 
pellent in the extreme, some are well adapted to point 
away to higher attainment, even to the most cultured 
and progressed members of American and European 
society. Mrs. Besant has written a sort of apology for 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 213 

the objectionable phases, while she has justly praised 
the advantageous types of Yoga; and as she is quite 
an oracle in the estimation of many professed The- 
osophists, it is well to refer to some of the good, 
sensible words she has uttered in opposition to the 
introduction of mischievous practices among people 
who often blindly follow inexperienced would-be 
leaders into the deep waters of a very questionable 
type of occultism. While commending the spirit 
underlying Yoga practice as a whole, Mrs. Besant 
remarks as follows in her lecture on Yoga concerning 
the mistaken attempts of some pretentious teachers to 
give extraordinary breathing exercises to their classes : 
u The shutting of the various senses physically, the 
checking of the breath physically, these are really the 
lightening, so to speak, of the weight, and making it 
easier for the mind to retire from the external world. 
But where these directions, which have been published 
to some extent, are suddenly taken up by people 
not fitted to practice them by physical heredity, and 
when they are carried out with much persistence and 
Western energy, without some one who knows how to 



214 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

guide the student, the practice may become exceedingly 
dangerous. I£ it is carried beyond a certain point it 
may seriously affect the organs of the body and may 
cause disease and death." 

The breathing exercises which are invariably recom- 
mended as aids to concentration by sober, level-headed 
persons who are not led astray by fanaticism are 
invariably beneficial in every direction; but these are 
in no sense unnatural; nor do they presume to lift the 
soul out of the body, but on the contrary they are in- 
tended to more fully vitalize the organism than it has 
ever been vitalized before. Mrs. Helen Wilmans, in 
her wonderful course of twenty lessons for Home 
Study in Mental Science, has much to say about the 
folly of that mental state which induces people to be- 
come as much like air-plants as possible, and she — who 
is always intensely practical, though highly tran- 
scendental—advises people again and again not to seek 
co get out of their bodies, but to more perfectly attune 
and develop their bodies, rendering them thereby 
better instruments through which universal intelli- 
gence can act. There is immense wisdom in the 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 215 

simple recommendation, "Let's be comfortable;" and 
to all who are seeking for higher light and fuller 
victory over surrounding conditions, we would fain 
echo and re-echo yes, let's be comfortable, for through 
comfort rather than through discomfort can we rise to 
the greatest heights of interior as well as exterior 
development. 

As many writers have truthfully declared concerning 
the wonder-workers of the East, the most astounding 
exhibitions of the marvelous can be given through the 
agency of men who look little more than emaciated 
skeletons bodily, but whose fervid will enables them 
to control the elements about them in a manner 
astonishing, indeed, to the over-fed and often sensual 
travelers, who gaze with open-mouthed wonder upon 
scenes which to them appear so decidedly supernatural, 
that they must be attributed either to God or the 
devil. 

But these harrowing scenes, graphically described 
by the author of Art Magic and other singular treatises 
upon the weird and the mysterious, are not the goods 
of which the majority of intelligent truth-seekers and 



216 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

power-seekers are in search. What they usually desire 
is not so much the ability to perform feats of so-called 
magic, as to be able to live their regular lievs on a 
higher plane and in a more satisfactory manner than 
heretofore. Memory is frequently complained of as 
being treacherous and unreliable, and all sorts of 
nostrums are offered for strengthening a faculty by 
artificial means, which, if left to itself and placed in 
normal conditions of repose, would prove ever faithful 
and, therefore, never treacherous. 

There is a great wealth of wisdom in Adelaide 
Proctor's saying: 

"One by one thy duties wait thee; 

Let thy whole strength go to each." 

And there is much wisdom also in many of the " White 
Cross" pamphlets written by Prentice Mulford, par- 
ticularly where he urges upon all who desire to increase 
in mental power and stability of character, to accustom 
themselves to the doing of but one thing at a time, 
never permitting any two occupations to divide the 
mental field between them. Memory is in itself an 
infallible recorder of all that transpires, but our power 
of recollection is what needs increasing. Memory 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 217 

with all its wonderful, undreamed-of content of in- 
formation stored up — we know not when and we know 
not how — is ever ready, like a rich mine or a deep well, 
to yield us abundant ore or copious draughts of oil or 
water, as the case may be, if we only learn the art 
of boring and mining, or bring sufficient buckets and 
let them down into the deep. 

Concentration is accomplished at first by a deliberate, 
determined, persistent effort (and yet in one sense not 
an effort) to contemplate one object, and that alone, 
until by reason of our attention being completely 
fastened upon it we are entirely oblivious to all beside. 
The following is a simple record of actual experience 
which clearly illustrates the idea we are seeking to 
convey. 

A company of six students were desirous of receiv- 
ing certificates from a teacher of Mental Science, 
which they were cssured would be placed in their 
hands as soon as they had satisfied the teacher that 
they were justly entitled to them, but certainly not 
before. When the day for final examination arrived, 
the six students were commissioned, at the conclusion 



218 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

of the valedictory address delivered to them in the 
class room, to each go into a separate room in the 
commodious house in which the lessons had been given, 
and concentrate their attention upon the theme which 
had formed the topic of the address. A sentence was 
given to each, not to be repeated again and again with 
parrot-like reiteration, but as a topic from which 
meditation was to start. Each of the students was 
called upon to spend fifteen minutes in meditation 
upon the theme, and at the expiration of that time 
they were to reassemble in the class room to talk 
over with the teacher what had opened itself out 
to them, while they were in silent retirement, en- 
gaged in meditation. The limit of fifteen minutes 
was to be left to the sensation each would inly ex- 
perience, as no progress whatever can be made in 
concentration if people allow themselves to fidget 
over time and consult clocks and watches. As the 
teacher intended to put the students to an unex- 
pected test, when less than ten minutes had expired 
she knocked loudly on one of the doors, and student 
number one answered immediately, calling out, u Who 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 219 

is there?" The teacher did not pause longer, but 
rapped on doors two, three and four with the same 
effect. When she came to number five, the response 
was not so ready, and seemed to come in a sleepy, 
far-away tone of voice, as from some one partially 
disturbed while in the enjoyment of reverie. Coming 
at last to door number six, she knocked louder and 
more persistently than on any of the other doors, but 
received no sort of answer for fully five minutes, when 
exactly at the expiration of the allotted time, (fifteen 
minutes) the student quietly walked out and descended 
to the class room, evidently quite oblivious to the fact 
that anyone had undertaken to test her fidelity to the 
rule of undisturbed attention to the work in hand. 

The sequel abundantly proved that the sixth stu- 
dent — the only one who remained absolutely true to 
her promise to concentrate undisturbedly for a given 
time on a given theme — was by far the most successful 
healer, one who in difficult cases, both acute and 
chronic, demonstrated the power to break up by calm 
persistency even the most baffling and complicated 
ailments. 



220 THEOSOPHXCAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

It is especially important to note that one's word 
given to oneself is just as necessarily binding as a 
word given to another; and all students of Oriental 
Yoga, and of every other system for mental culture 
and liberation from prevailing thralldom, insist upon 
this for many obvious reasons. There is an immense 
fund of meaning in Shakespeare's words, u To thine 
own self be true"; and though the ethical teacher 
rarely goes deeply enough into the metaphysics of the 
subject, it is universally admitted in theory (though 
not in practice) that one's word must be one's bond 
when only spoken to oneself, and that silently, as 
though it were trumpeted abroad in clarion tones as a 
vow taken to a multitude. "The Guardian of the 
Threshold," a very mysterious and enigmatical charac- 
ter frequently alluded to in works on occultism, is no 
such grotesque or incomprehensible creature as fervid 
imagination is apt to depict; for this formidable keeper 
of the mysteries from the clutch of the unworthy ap- 
pears generally in the most ordinary and unsuspected 
guise; and you will every one of you discover, if you 
seek to acquire or unfold your own psychic energy, 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 221 

that obstacles are piled up in your way as though 
Nature was determined that you should not acquire 
dominion over her elemental kingdoms easily. There 
is so precise an analogy between man's inward and 
outward conquests of Nature's territories, that in the 
pathway of interior attainment there are to be en- 
countered precisely the same difficulties as are in- 
variably met with in the pursuance of all successful 
attempts to dominate the earth and compel the ele- 
ments to obey us. When you start out with the 
resolve to do anything, do it, rain or shine, obstacles 
or no obstacles. Resist every temptation to desist 
from your purpose, and though hard at first, as you 
proceed the road will gradually, if not suddenly, grow 
bright before you. Be resolved to conquer; hesitate 
not to say I can and I will; and though your best 
friend or nearest relative stood between you and your 
goal, you must press steadily forward, as in the days 
of the Civil War when the brave boys in blue or grey 
left their homes and leaped into the thick of battle, 
even though their own heart strings were torn equally 
with those of their doting mothers and sisters. The 



222 THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 

harshest words concerning renunciation attributed to 
Jesus are experimentally true. A great cause demands 
a great sacrifice, and whatever you love more than the 
cause stands between it and you; therefore*, of it you 
are not worthy. Though there is nothing beautiful 
in the lives of the anchorites of the desert, and noth- 
ing from which we should literally take example in 
the self-torturing practices of those Hindu fanatics, 
who stretch out an arm and hold it out till the nails 
grow into the flesh of the tightly clenched palm, even 
those mistaken devotees of a perverted religious faith 
show the world the power of self-determination, and 
prove that if one is only sufficiently resolved he can 
transcend all that is ordinary and compel his body to 
do him service. 

Our ambition, however, is not to extol or to ex- 
emplify the harrowing details of misdirected Yoga; 
but this we do say: "Learn to be a Daniel, learn to stand 
alone, learn to have one purpose true, learn to make 
it known."' And as all learning means striving at first, 
shrink not from the drudgery of the earlier stages of 
mental culture any more than you shrink from the 



THEOSOPHICAL SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 223 

arduous self-discipline necessary to constitute you an 
expert in any line of work in which you may engage. 
Choose some object which is to you a most important 
one, and pursue that alike through fair and stormy 
weather, in spite of obstacles, till you have won your 
way by dint of mental perseverance to the fulfillment 
of your projected undertaking. However trivial from 
the outside an exercise may seem, if it is to you the 
sign and seal of an inward resolution it cannot be un- 
important. All lives can be glorious and sublime if 
they are but faithful to a single aim. Let collaterals 
go while you adhere steadfastly to the main resolve. 
This is the secret of Yoga, and whoever, realizing the 
worth of these suggestions, strives to put them into 
practice will find his own inner strength assert itself 
increasingly from day to day, till at length he will 
have himself so well in hand that the elements — once 
his masters — will have become his obedient slaves. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



GESTERAL COMPENDIUM OF THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS. 

Having in the past thirteen essays briefly sketched 
some of the leading tenets of Theosophy as presented 
by ancient and modern exponents of this mysterious 
cult, it now becomes our final duty to sum up the 
evidence and compare the Theosophical doctrines with 
the teachings of Mental Science, as they specially 
relate to individual sovereignty and the power of the 
human individual to work out his own destiny, despite 
the obstacles offered by a seemingly relentless fate. 
Though Theosophy has been for the past twenty years 
so intimately and almost exclusively associated with 
the propaganda undertaken by the Blavatsky school, 
who claim direct communion with Mahatmas, who are 
said to be the real founders and directors of the 
modern Theosophic movement, it must not be for- 
gotten that the word Theosophy is very old, and did 

224 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 225 

not originally stand for any special system of Oriental 
ethics, philosophy or mysticism. In the early Christian 
church the Theosophic party differed widely from the 
dialectical; for, while the latter invariably insisted upon 
deducing their conclusions from the workings of 
exterior reason, the Theosophists — prominent among 
whom may be mentioned Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus 
and others of the Neo Platonists — declared that man 
could individually eujoy direct communion with Deity, 
and, therefore, by a purely interior process arrive at 
exact knowledge of divine truth. 

In theological circles wherever genuine Theosophy 
gained ascendency a death blow was dealt to every 
arrogant claim of the priesthood; for the Theosophists 
refused to bow to any authority higher than their own 
conviction of right. This position is very clearly 
stated in the oft-quoted motto, "There is no religion 
higher than truth," which means that no ecclesiastical 
system or hierarchy has any right whatever to enforce 
its dogmas over the conviction of the individually 
illumined soul. One of the first societies formed in 
London to study the writings of Swedenborg called 



226 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

itself a Theosophical Society; and there have always 
been groups of mystics and philosophers everywhere 
wherever civilization has spread, who have declared 
themselves Theosophists, owning no allegiance to any 
authority beyond or outside the revelation made to 
themselves individually. We all know that the church 
has sharply contested this doctrine, but its opposition 
has been based largely upon the ambition of its 
leaders to compel the human intellect to bend to 
sacerdotal authority, and in this age of avowedly 
independent thought and action a return is rapidly 
being made to the original Theosophical position. A 
true Theosophical society cannot have an authoritative 
dictator at its head. It must be composed of con- 
scientious, truth-loving, unprejudiced men and women 
who are determined to find and follow truth wherever 
it may lead. Theosophy pure and simple does not 
appeal to weak minds, nor does it receive favor with 
any who desire to govern others and refuse to their 
neighbors the right of individual liberty. 

With the departure of William Judge of New York 
from the scene of his earthly labors, many members 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 227 

of the Aryan Theosophical Society, whose headquarters 
are there located, have felt that a great prop has been 
taken from their movement, as many of them relied 
on Mr. Judge to counsel them in all their movements. 
One by one the personal leaders in a movement are 
sure to drop out, and if the members of the society are 
not self-reliant enough to work together permanently 
on the co-operative basis, the society is doomed to 
failure as an organization; though the ideas once 
disseminated, in so far as they are reasonable, are sure 
to take root, spread and multiply, 

There is at root very little difference between the 
fundamentals of Theosophy and the essentials of 
Mental Science; for the attacks upon mental healing 
made from time to time in the columns of avowedly 
Theosophical organs, have invariably displayed the 
grossest ignorance of the subject they have attempted- 
to explain. Theosophy regards the individual human 
soul as a potential entity, containing within itself 
latent ability to build and govern planets; but this 
concealed energy is only rendered available in the field 
of use through a long process of evolutionary develop- 



228 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

merit. The ego produces form after form, through 
which it is only partially expressed, until at length it 
builds for itself a nobler tenement, viz., the human 
body; but this at first is crude and imperfect; and as 
a perfect instrument through which to act is the goal 
of the ego's intention in expression, a succession of 
incarnations or terrestrial embodiments takes place, 
until a perfect organism has been fashioned, which 
serves to perfectly express the purpose of the individ- 
ualized intelligence. When this perfected body is 
formed, death is overcome as well as sickness; for the 
entity which has succeeded in building so perfect a 
form is now sovereign in its own domain, and cannot 
be overtaken and ousted by the action of agencies 
foreign to its own desire. When this attitude is 
reached there is no more submission to the law of 
Karma, for man is then the victor over conditions 
whose victim he formerly was; and having achieved 
the victory he is henceforward governor in a domain 
where he was formerly servant. The ultimate triumph 
over death is the attainment of the resurrection body; 
and though this truth has been strangely distorted, 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 229 

oftentimes it shines out for those who have eyes to 
see even through the densest theological veil which 
has ever obscured it. 

Much contention has recently arisen among meta- 
physicians and others concerning the desirability, as 
well as the possibility, of continuing one's sojourn on 
earth indefinitely. On this question there are many 
differences of opinion; but leaving these aside it may 
be safely affirmed that the heart of the controversy is 
touched only when we consider the proposition whether 
man can or cannot regulate the limit of his terrestrial 
career himself, or whether he is forced to submit to 
the iron hand of an extraneous destiny. 

The true Theosophist is one who teaches that in 
man himself reside all the potentialities of divinity, 
but these, it is claimed, can only be evolved by a 
process of evolution usually occupying long cycles of 
time in its accomplishment. Man is, according to the 
Theosophic view, the container of all divine attributes, 
and by means of this inward containment he thinks of 
them, admires them and desires to express them. 

Genuine Theosophy knows absolutely nothing of 



230 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

slavish dependence upon an outside deity, who desires 
glory from men and threatens with everlasting misery 
all who abstain from offering incense at the shrine of 
this majestic potentate. To the Theosophist, God is 
the inmost life of man, the fountain-head or parent 
source of all intelligence; therefore, the words of the 
great hierophant of Galilee, "I and my Father are 
one," are understood to refer to the common preroga- 
tive of universal humanity, not to belong exclusively 
to any one representative of the race, however exalted 
in spirituality. 

Though not the private property of any specified 
cult, Theosophy is the soul of all systems of religion, 
the outward tenets of which as ordinarily presented to 
the world being scarcely more than veils thrown over 
the interior meaning. 

A recent writer, (Prof. J. L. Ditson) in a wonderful 
book entitled "Man's Immensity," has summarized his 
own conclusions regarding the universe in a decidedly 
adventurous manner; and though his way of stating 
the case may be peculiar to himself, the doctrine he 
puts forward is distinctly a revival of much of that 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 231 

early Theosophy, which often made itself conspicuous 
in the primitive church, but was severely denounced 
and unsparingly anathematized by the prelatical which 
grew to be an overwhelming numerical majority. 

The order of the Universe, according to Prof. 
Ditson, is four-fold. First, Supreme Cause, self- 
existent, therefore, eternal] second, Man is the Supreme 
Being to finish up the earth; third, Cosmic Matter; 
fourth, A Spiritual World or Sphere. This author says 
that to exact science Cosmic Matter is because it is. 

We do not by any means regard the foregoing 
classification as Theosophic in its language, which is 
in our estimation extremely crude, particularly as 
regards the language of the second proposition. We 
also consider the statement concerning Cosmic Matter 
unsatisfactory. However, as language is often cruder 
than the thought it is intended to express, the phrase 
"finish up the earth" may really stand for a great and 
mighty truth as concerns man's possibilities and 
purposes. Man can certainly do everything he wishes 
to do; and as nothing can be plainer than man's 
resolute determination to make the earth his foot- 



232 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

stool, reason affirms that however long it may take for 
him to accomplish his purpose, he will surely fulfill it 
sometime. 

Prof. Ditson says, "Man's endowments are a proof 
of his immortality," and declares that we shall enter 
no Supreme Presence greater than man, who once 
walked the earth incased in clay. 

Strange though it may appear there are no two 
doctrines more easily reconcilable than the seemingly 
utterly diverse teachings of Theosophy and those of 
orthodox Christianity; but when we fearlessly examine 
both, we shall see that the latter was only a contrac- 
tion of the former. Theosophy, pure and simple, 
starts out with a most emphatic affirmation of human 
greatness, and declares that the real fall of man is the 
descent of spirit out of the subjective into the objec- 
tive field of action. This is the birth of the Son of 
God on earth. God is manifest in and through the 
flesh. The words of the Nicene Creed, "Deum de deo, 
deum verum de deo vero" though now exclusively 
applied to the historic Jesus, whom orthodox Christians 
proclaim is "very God of very God, begotten not made, 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 233 

being of one substance with the Father by whom all 
things were made," originally conveyed to many of 
the mystics which abounded in the early church the 
idea of man being in his very inmost identical in 
nature with the Supreme Intelligence. This view 
made the birth of man on earth a voluntary act, and 
each incarnate ego the f ulfiller of a self-elected destiny. 

If this esoteric teaching is again unlocked, and the 
people get hold of the Theosophic key to the creeds, 
we do not say that it will destroy the church, but it 
will completely transform it; and as to the reign of a 
dogmatic, awe-inspiring priesthood, that will be at an 
end forever. 

There are many people in full ecclesiastical com- 
munion who do not hesitate to declare that there is a 
veritable inner meaning to every doctrine of religion 
and emblem of theology, but only the literal interpre- 
tation must be given to the masses, because one of the 
offices the church has to fill in the world is to keep the 
unruly in check; and this, it is claimed, can be done 
only by appealing to their fears. The fear of the 
Lord, in that sense, may be the beginning of wisdom, 



234 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

if it serves to hold the violent under control, thereby 
preventing terrific outbreaks of cruelty and licentious- 
ness, which can in an undeveloped state of society 
only be held within bounds by the strong arm of the 
terrifying law. From this position we largely dissent; 
and we claim that history and modern facts unite to 
prove that for the most part appeals to fear have done 
more harm than good. Witness, for example, the 
actual condition of Spain to-day. No soldiers are 
crueller than the Spanish troops, and none are more 
given to wanton aggressions; yet in no part of the 
world have the harsher doctrines of religion been more 
thunderously proclaimed. As one extreme is invaria- 
bly followed by its opposite, there is in many places a 
decided tendency toward rushing from the most un- 
reasonable and frightful teachings concerning divine 
vengeance to an unqualified and irrational phase of 
Universalism, which leads people to say: u Oh! we 
suffer enough in this world, and when we are dead we 
shall certainly be through with our sufferings/' This 
teaching is utterly unscientific in both of its aspects, 
for no matter whether it be held by professed Ma- 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 235 

terialists or Spiritualists, whoever accepts it fails 
altogether to grasp the central truth of universal 
Theosophy, which is perfectly embodied in the words, 
"As a man soweth so shall he also reap." Death can- 
not destroy individual consciousness; nor can it trans- 
port us to a bright and glorious summer-land for which 
we are unprepared. The most that it can do is to re- 
lease us from exterior environment, and whether 
that release is desirable or not is a very open question. 
A forcible statement by Mrs. Wilmans in Freedom 
called forth a reply from Dr. Peebles, which contained 
some very peculiar statements, including the declara- 
tion that every white hair is a dead hair, which it 
certainly is not, even though it may be called a dis- 
colored hair. That which is dead ceases to grow. It 
can only disintegrate; but white hairs often show just 
as much vitality as black ones, and grow long again, 
after they are cut, with equal rapidity. Whatever is 
actually dead is soon discarded, and must pass to decay, 
which is only disintegration of particles, every one of 
which will be used again in the organization of fresh 
bodies. 



236 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

There is nmcli confusion of thought among en- 
quirers into Theosophy concerning our post-mortem 
condition, or, as many term it, the state we are in dur- 
ing the interval between incarnations. The duration 
of time between one incarnation and another is regu- 
lated — so say many who are looked up to as authorities 
on the question — by the amount of desire which holds 
the entity to earth, or the preponderance of desire 
which attracts the ego away from terrestrial conditions. 
Pure Theosophy knows nothing whatever of the u gal- 
vanized astral shells" and other extraordinary con- 
coctions of perverted intellects, and affirms in place 
thereof the very reasonable tenet that here on earth 
abide an immense multitude of souls, whose mortal 
bodies have been removed from them without their 
own desire, and even against their strongest inclina- 
tion. Such entities are simply invisible to ordinary 
eyes, but by clairvoyants they are readily seen; and 
though they are often in a dazed and bewildered con- 
dition, not knowing where they actually are or in 
what state they are existing, the seers on earth have 
always beheld them even in instances where no intel- 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 237 

ligent communion with them was possible. As all 
dealings with the astral or psychic plane are fraught 
with dangers to the unwary, and specially to the un- 
scrupulous, the Theosophists of every age and country 
have frequently warned the public against rash intru- 
sion on the astral plane; but though these warnings 
are in essence reasonable, they are often exaggerated 
and misapplied, so much so that many timid people 
are scared instead of benefited by listening to the 
direful tale of dangers told with so much dramatic 
vehemence by some who undertake to pose as leaders 
in the modern Theosophic movement. Persons who 
have no gift of seership are, of course, less able to 
discriminate between occult influences than those 
whose clairvoyant perception is well developed; but 
there is one infallible rule to be applied to all dealings 
with the unseen, and that is to judge of the source 
whence a communication flows by the effect it pro- 
duces upon whoever receives it. We can receive 
thoughts and messages from the "departed" just as 
we can from those who are yet embodied in flesh and 
blood; but because this is a fact in the experience of 



238 GEisERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

all who know much (or even a little) of the practical 
workings of telepathy, it does not prove that the mes- 
sages received are from particularly wise or especially 
reliable sources of intelligence. Just as William Steady 
the noted English journalist, has many times declared 
in "Borderland" and other publications, that he has 
received messages from "Julia," who is an excarnate 
human entity, as well as from many persons of his 
acquaintance yet in the flesh, and the mode of receiv- 
ing these varied messages is substantially the same in 
all instances — so many of the accepted leaders of the 
Theosophical movement may have received messages 
in a somewhat phenomenal manner, from their own 
familiar spirits^ on any plane of existence, and have 
been perfectly honest in recording their experiences, 
but quite mistaken as to the source whence the mes- 
sages emanated. A claim that messages come from 
Masters or Mahatmas, when they probably only come 
from brothers, makes a great deal of needless con- 
troversy, both within and without the Theosophical 
Society. Mahatmas are supposed to know everything 
pertaining to the constitution of this planet, its his- 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 239 

tory and destiny; therefore, if they make mistakes on 
any point their very existence is likely to be discredited, 
and those who claim to be in communication with 
them are often vilified as willful impostors. Had these 
prominent people who have laid themselves open to 
so much scandal on account of alleged forgeries of 
Mahatmic messages been less presumptuous in their 
claims, and contented themselves with affirming that 
they were in mental touch with certain brothers in 
India or elsewhere, and that members of an occult or 
esoteric Asiatic fraternity were giving them telepathic 
lessons in Oriental philosophy, the phenomena could 
and doubtless would have been dealt with very dif- 
ferently; but in many an instance people involve 
themselves in the deepest and most disagreeable con- 
troversies, because they claim altogether more than is 
reasonable for the unseen intelligences with whom 
they are en rapport. 

Students of occultism are fully aware of the exist- 
ence of brotherhoods, the members of which can either 
travel in their astral bodies, or else send out their 
mental emanations to great distances, and make them- 



240 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

selves visible, tangible and audible to the psychical 
perception, if not to the physical senses, of those to 
whom they desire to appear, and who are desirous of 
communicating with them. This, however, by no 
means proves anything more than Mental Scientists 
are constantly demonstrating in their often highly 
successful work of absent healing. I have personally 
felt the presence of Mrs. Wilmans when I was in 
Boston and she was in Florida, and I discovered after- 
wards through a letter I received from her that she was 
writing to me on business of some importance at the 
very time I felt her presence and seemed to hear her 
voice; and to this I will add that in conjunction with 
this decided sense of her presence, I felt a strong, 
invigorating, highly intellectual influence of an ex- 
tremely positive character, and had I then and there 
written down the thoughts that came to me I should 
probably have indited almost the identical words Mrs. 
Wilmans was then committing to paper several hun- 
dred miles away. 

Members of the Theosophical Society, as that body- 
is at present organized and disorgauized, cannot 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 241 

rationally expect the thinking public to accept on tlie 
ipse dixit of that internally divided body the stupendous 
claim that the mental messages received by its leading 
officers come from such illustrious beings as true 
Masters or Mahatmas must certainly be. That there 
are such beings we gladly admit, and that they can 
communicate with those who are really prepared to 
respond to their approach, we do not in the least deny; 
but their influence never prompts to the errors and 
absurdities which are often painfully evident in the 
teachings of those who claim to be their only ac- 
credited representatives. We must judge all trees by 
the fruit they manifestly bear, and nowhere have we 
found more discrepancies than in teachings supposed 
to emanate from supernal sources of intelligence. 

True Theosophy will surely command a hearing 
wherever it is fairly and kindly presented, not, per- 
haps, from the bigoted who cling with blind stupidity 
to time honored dogmas without ever venturing to 
examine into the claims of anything outside the narrow 
precincts of their idolized church or college; but the 
world's thought to-day is so rapidly advancing that 



2-42 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

bigotry is surely doomed to an early death and an 
ignominious grave wherever true civilization shall 
extend its benignant sway. 

The leading truths which are common to all schools 
of Theosophy may be summarized as follows. We 
beg the reader to remember that the order of classifica- 
tion is our own, and for convenience only; but the 
dcctrines enunciated in the following concise digest 
are culled from the teachings of the gnostics and 
mystics of all ages, and that these are their teachings 
in the main any student can readily prove to his or 
her individual satisfaction by searching the available 
records: 

First — The highest principle or essential soul of 
humanity is divine. This true ego or atma holds po- 
tentially every divine attribute of which we can con- 
ceive, and is capable of eventually manifesting these 
attributes through a prepared organism, built up by 
itself, through its own volition and embodyiug all the 
elements of the comprehensible universe. 

Second — Man is the arbiter of his own fate, the or- 
dainer of his own destiny; for, though it be ever so 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 243 

vehemently affirmed that Deity rules man's fortune, 
Deity works upon and through man not from without 
but within. 

Third — The individual unit of consciousness we call 
the individual human being has been for ages operating 
upon and through the elements of nature, building 
for itself an instrument through which to express its 
inherent properties, and at length every soul, without 
exception, will conquer every obstacle in the way of 
its ultimate triumph, and prove that as in Adam (the 
lower sensuous state) all die, even so in Christ (the 
illumined spiritual state) all shall be made alive. 

Fourth — The great teachers of mankind, be they 
called Masters, Messiahs or known by whatever title 
best expresses supreme power over all terrestrial 
things, are only rightly regarded or properly un- 
derstood when they are looked upon as the ripened 
fruits upon the tree of human life, or the highest 
products of spiritual evolution which we, in our present 
stages of development, can in any measure compre- 
hend. These enlighteners of the race are, therefore, 
manifestations of Deity to the world, because through 



244 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

them the Divine Spirit, which is the essential life of 
all, is more than ordinarily expressed. To call them 
Mahatmas is etyniologically correct, if we take a San- 
skrit title in preference to a name equivalent in dignity 
derived from some other language. 

Fifth — The universal Law of Life, which is ab- 
solutely unchanging, is purely beneficent, even when 
most obscure in its operations. Therefore, though the 
words are eternally true that whatever an individual 
sows he himself (or she herself ) must reap, all so-called 
penalties are means of growth, and will eventually in 
every instance tend to the elevation of those who un- 
dergo the discipline. 

Sixth— Every soul will at length conquer and attain 
to resplendence in expression. Therefore, however 
true the doctrine of transmigration or metempsychosis 
may be as concerns sub-human or ante-human ex- 
periences, it is never true that an entity takes a back- 
ward step, and thereby loses what it has once attained. 
Every onward step is progressive; and though so- 
called hells may endure indefinitely, they cannot 
be permanently made up of the same individuals, but 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 245 

like schools, reformatories and other seemingly per- 
manent institutions, they serve to educate those who 
pass through them on their way to higher stages of 
attainment. 

Seventh — "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," 
which means that we are in reality whatever we love 
to be; and as our affections, desires and aspirations 
make us what we are, and these reveal to us the nature 
of our constitution, and declare to us our possibilities, 
it is reasonable for every human being to trust in the 
certainty of ultimately realizing his (or her) highest 
wishes; and as nothing can be attained without ex- 
ercise or normal effort, all must work steadily with 
confidence in the final success of their endeavors 
toward complete realization of their loftiest ideals. 

Eighth — Emerson's sublime statement. "I, the im- 
perfect, adore my own perfect, " is a truly Theosophic 
declaration of the two selves of man, the higher which 
is the seat of ideals, and the lower the instrument 
through which ideals are to be worked out. As 
Swedenborg has declared, "love gives cod junction;" 
so whatever we love fervently we become united with. 



246 GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 

and this union in our inner being makes possible a 
corresponding statement in the field of objective 
realization. 

Ninth — All the potent forces of nature being in- 
visible from the ordinary material standpoint, but 
clearly apprehensible by enlightened intelligence, we 
must first realize inwardly, then express outwardly; 
consequently, what is usually designated metaphysical 
is causative, what is commonly known as physical 
being effect. 

Though the foregoing nine statements by no means 
exhaust our inexhaustible theme, our fourteen allotted 
essays are at end, and this series of introductory 
dissertations on Universal Theosophy must go out to 
the world, imperfect as they are, to excite whatever 
comment or enquiry it may be their mission to arouse. 
"Without any desire to give offense, but with resolute 
determination to remain loyal to conviction, the writer 
firmly and boldly declares that no enlightened The- 
osophist ever opposes mental healing, or denies the 
possibility of real communion with the Spirit world. 
However, the chief aim of the missionary Theosophist 



GENERAL COMPENDIUM, ETC. 247 

must ever be to inculcate sound ethical teaching and 
work with untiring energy to secure the triumph of 
equity in every relationship of life. 

That well known poem, "The Song of the Soul 
Victorious/' which has gone the rounds of so many 
magazines during the past few years, expresses so 
faithfully the cardinal tenets of pure Theosophy that 
we wish it to serve as an appendix to our own writings 
on this exhaustless theme. When pessimism, blind 
fatalism and all terror of an angry God shall have 
vanished from the earth, then will Theosophia (divine 
wisdom) shed its brilliant light over the entire earth, 
and man, delivered wholly from bondage to the 
elements, will be a conquering hero where once he 
was a timid slave. u Side by side we are marching on- 
ward, and in time we shall all agree/' Truth conquers 
all things. 



TKeBIo55om o f lL G C G Rlury 



By HELEN WILMANS. This is a Mental Science book. It is all about the 
possibilities of human power; the power vested in human development. I c is at 
once a mighty revelation and a mightier prophecy. Such a book is inestimable in 
its capacity to unfold native mental ability in the person who studies it, and to 
establish him in unfaltering self-trust. The absence of self-trust is self-defeat every 
time. Its absence is the curse of the race. It is neither poverty nor disease nor 
oppression that curses us; it is the want of self-confidence that does it. The man 
who has self-trust goes up head; those v. ho lack it take their places below him, and 
stand, usually, where the self-trustful man places them. But here is what some 
of the readers have said about the book : 

S. McDonald, Terre Haute, Ind., says of it: 

*' A wonderful book; a book that will stir the old world from center to circum- 
ference; the elements of destruction and of re-construction are in it — the destruc- 
tion of solidified error; the re-construction of life on a higher basis than the 
conceptions of the race have yet dreamed of. It is the one book of the century ; 
indeed, it is the one book of the centuries." 

Charles Davis Hart, Chicago, 111., says: 

* : I have never read anything, and indeed there has never been anything written, 
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their latent genius, as this wonderfnl book. I should have missed the greater part 
of myself not to have read it; for it has revealed this greater part to me. I am 
more than twice the man I was before I purchased ' The Blossom of the Century.' " 

" The Blossom of the Century," attractively bound in cloth. Price $1. Address 
Helen Wilmans, Sea Breeze, Fla. 



TV Home £out5c? in Mental Science. 



By HELEN WILMANS. The most essential thing I know of for the uplifting 
of humanity, and for healing all its distresses of sickness, weakness, deformity, and 
poverty, is a knowledge of the science of mind; a knowledge of what mind is and 
what it can do. 

I am now offering for home study a complete course of lessons upon this most 

essential subject. There are twenty of these lessons in twenty pamphlets. The 
names of the lessons are as follows: 

i. Omnipresent Life. 2. Thought, the Body-builder. 3. Our Beliefs. 4. 
Denials. 5. Affirmations. 6. The Soul of Things. 7. Faith, Our Guide 
Through the Dark. 8. Spirit and Body are One. 9. Prayer and Self-Culture. 
10. The Power behind the Throne, ri. The Power above the Throne. 12. The 
King on v His Throne. 15. Mental Science a Race Movement. 14. Mental Sci- 
ence Incarnate in Flesh and Blood. 15. Personality and Individuality. 16. 
" The Stone That the Builders Rejected." 17. A Noble Egoism the Foundation 
of Just Action. 18. Recognition of the Will the Cure of Disease. 19. Practical 
Healing. 20. Posture of the Will Man. 

The price of these lessons has been reduced from $25.00 to $5.00. Students have 
the privilege of sending $1.00 at a time and getting four lessons. Send for descrip- 
tive circular to Helen Wilmans, Sea Breeze, Fla.' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 012 206 2 



